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Watch Your Step, It's a Moose! August 29, 2025 f/5.6 1/200 second |
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Thirty yards to the right and rear of this harmless looking bull
was the cow he had been courting. He had tried approaching her
twice already, but each time he did so she ran away. Then he
bedded down for an hour or so while I and a handful of others
watched with our cameras. Besides myself, two others had
telephoto lenses, while three or four people kept track of him
with their phone cameras. Now he was on his feet again and
moving toward the cow. Suddenly she came charging straight
toward that small crowd of people, striking panic and scattering
them in every direction, with the determined bull right behind
her as she headed up the mountain toward the cover of the
Douglas fir. I had been far to the right end of the line of
people and had avoided most of the chaos, but I soon discovered
that one man had fallen at the foot of the moose. For the last two months I had been telling people to be careful, that there was always a chance a moose would charge. I would warn everyone that they could not outrun a moose, that they should pick out some trees they could duck behind, and plan well in advance their escape route. This man and his wife I had come to know, and he had heard my warnings, but the first thing he said to me was that "when a moose comes charging at you all your best plans go out the window." Both of the moose were now about a hundred yards up the hill at edge of the fir trees. I had no intention of trying to follow them into the fir trees, and after that experience neither did anyone else. Everyone packed up and headed down the trail towards their homes. I was packing up and in the process of putting my camera into my camera pack, holding it by the big telephoto lens, when the cow came sprinting down the hill directly at me, the bull close on her heels. In my haste to get out of their way, I too tripped, dropping my camera. The cow headed straight down the trail, with the bull in full pursuit, catching up to that group of photographers and scattering all of them yet a second time. Fortunately the bull did not express his frustration toward me, or I would have gone home on a stretcher. Perhaps that was why she kept heading straight towards us, she was hoping he would get distracted by our close proximity. Fortunately I was not injured, and quite relieved that with my camera and telephoto lens intact, after quick inspection they appeared still functional. On the way down the trail I met a woman who asked if I was photographing the moose. As I relayed this story she responded with, "You don't have to warn me about moose." She and her husband had once been on their way to Blanche Lake. As he rounded a bend he suddenly found himself too close to a big bull and just as he stepped on a twig and snapped it, the moose charged. He tried to do exactly what I have been telling people to do, run for some trees to get behind, but he too fell. The moose not only rammed him, and but while he was down then stomped on him. The common thread here seems to be that all of us have been trying to get away, but each of us has fallen. I believe that is because our natural instinct is to keep our eyes on the pursuer, which is a fatal mistake. Perhaps that feels instinctual to us because we spend most of our time in our neighborhoods, where the ground is flat and predictable. If a bully was chasing you when you were a child, repeatedly looking over your shoulder to see where he was probably was appropriate, and possibly even helpful. However, there is nothing predictable about the mountains. There are sticks, brush, boulders, and all sorts of debris to stumble over. I do hope this never happens to you, but if you ever have to run from any kind of wild animal, moose or otherwise, you had better keep you eyes on the ground in front of you so that you don't stumble. Looking over your shoulder is not going to slow the animal down, you must assume the animal is still coming full speed straight at you. Note: If you are reading this on your cell phone you can probably double tap this box and it will fill your screen from side to side, which will make it easier to read. You can double tap again to zoom back out. The same is true of any of my photos. |