We saw a Moose!
Would you know what to do if you ran into a Moose in the forest? You should, their numbers are increasing in Connecticut. If you spend a lot of time in the woods chances are you'll eventually run into one. Responding properly to a Moose encounter can be the difference between happily declaring, "Dude! We saw a Moose!" and fearing for your life. These are beautiful creatures, but they can become aggressive.
Moose are traveling into Connecticut from Massachusetts, their numbers in our state are on the rise. Apparently as of this year there are about 100 Moose living here and we saw our first one today!
We were on the Iron Trail in North Canaan. We started at the Beckley furnace and had just finished the length of the trail, taken a lunch break, turned around and started walking back. I was in the lead, I looked up and spotted something moving towards us just around a bend in the trail. He was on the trail, heading in our direction, wandering slowly, head down, probably looking for things to eat. My brain processed the gigantic creature and the next words out of my mouth were, "Oh my God, it's a moose!" I looked around, spotted an appropriate tree to hide behind and immediately began to worry about the fact that we were way too close to a Moose.
"Get behind the tree!" I said to my husband who wasn't panicking at what I felt was an appropriate level. In fact, he didn't appear to be the least bit concerned, he was getting his camera out, but he did do as I asked and promptly joined me behind the tree. He continued in his attempt to change camera lenses from behind the tree, while simultaneously keeping an eye on the Moose and its mood and trying to reassure me as I fretted about how I "really didn't want to see a Moose today."
I'll be honest with you here. I am afraid of Moose, they're really big, they can be aggressive, that's enough for me. Give me a black bear any day of the week. I'm probably more afraid of Moose than I need to be, but I don't fault myself for having a healthy survival instinct. Sidetrack, on the other hand, loves Moose, so he was wary and respectful, but not afraid of it. The whole encounter, from his perspective was more "this is awesome!" as opposed to my "holy crap this huge animal could kill us!" response.
Anyway, the next time I looked in the direction of the Moose it had also stepped off the trail, behind a tree and some brush, and it was looking directly at as from a distance of about 30 feet. My hope was that it would just move on, but that wasn't happening, instead it was moving towards us, not straight at us, but getting closer, moving slowly and cautiously.
You really want as much distance between yourself and a Moose as possible, we were already way too close to it, so I decided it was time to get serious about moving away at this point. We were in a heavily forested area so I began looking for another big tree, which I found and moved behind, then I checked for another, moved again, all the while hoping the moose wouldn't follow, it didn't. My husband employed the stay behind a tree method as well, but wasn't getting away from the Moose as quickly as I was since he wanted to be sure he knew where the moose was headed. I lost track of the Moose, (they do blend in really well in that environment). I was able to keep an eye on my husband the whole time. When I finally had a couple hundred feet between me and where I was pretty sure the Moose was I got my phone out and waited behind my tree. What I thought I was going to do with my phone I don't know, but somehow I felt better with it in hand. When the Moose moved on we started back down the trail, keeping an eye behind us for a good, long, while.
So, what should you do should you happen across one of these gigantic, yet beautiful creatures?
Most animals have a healthy fear of humans and will run away when they see you. Moose, not so much. Unlike other animals, you don't want to try to appear large and threatening, or stand your ground, you want to vacate the area, quickly. Moose aren't predators, they have no drive to chase you down and eat you, so when you see a Moose it's okay to run away.
If you're lucky you're not going to be face to face with the moose when you see it. We pretty much were since we and the Moose were both traveling down the same trail in opposite directions. If you're lucky the moose will be well off in the woods and will just be satisfied with you continuing on your way down the trail. It can walk away, you can walk away, problem solved.
If you do find yourself face to face with a Moose you really want to keep something big between you and the animal and move away from it. Once you're far enough away the Moose will move on.
The best info I've seen is here and rather than regurgitate it I'm just going to share the article from AMC Outdoors. Read it, know it, and confidently enjoy your hikes. :)
http://www.outdoors.org/publications/outdoors/2010/learnhow/responding-to-moose-encounters.cfm
We were on the Iron Trail in North Canaan. We started at the Beckley furnace and had just finished the length of the trail, taken a lunch break, turned around and started walking back. I was in the lead, I looked up and spotted something moving towards us just around a bend in the trail. He was on the trail, heading in our direction, wandering slowly, head down, probably looking for things to eat. My brain processed the gigantic creature and the next words out of my mouth were, "Oh my God, it's a moose!" I looked around, spotted an appropriate tree to hide behind and immediately began to worry about the fact that we were way too close to a Moose.
"Get behind the tree!" I said to my husband who wasn't panicking at what I felt was an appropriate level. In fact, he didn't appear to be the least bit concerned, he was getting his camera out, but he did do as I asked and promptly joined me behind the tree. He continued in his attempt to change camera lenses from behind the tree, while simultaneously keeping an eye on the Moose and its mood and trying to reassure me as I fretted about how I "really didn't want to see a Moose today."
I'll be honest with you here. I am afraid of Moose, they're really big, they can be aggressive, that's enough for me. Give me a black bear any day of the week. I'm probably more afraid of Moose than I need to be, but I don't fault myself for having a healthy survival instinct. Sidetrack, on the other hand, loves Moose, so he was wary and respectful, but not afraid of it. The whole encounter, from his perspective was more "this is awesome!" as opposed to my "holy crap this huge animal could kill us!" response.
Anyway, the next time I looked in the direction of the Moose it had also stepped off the trail, behind a tree and some brush, and it was looking directly at as from a distance of about 30 feet. My hope was that it would just move on, but that wasn't happening, instead it was moving towards us, not straight at us, but getting closer, moving slowly and cautiously.
You really want as much distance between yourself and a Moose as possible, we were already way too close to it, so I decided it was time to get serious about moving away at this point. We were in a heavily forested area so I began looking for another big tree, which I found and moved behind, then I checked for another, moved again, all the while hoping the moose wouldn't follow, it didn't. My husband employed the stay behind a tree method as well, but wasn't getting away from the Moose as quickly as I was since he wanted to be sure he knew where the moose was headed. I lost track of the Moose, (they do blend in really well in that environment). I was able to keep an eye on my husband the whole time. When I finally had a couple hundred feet between me and where I was pretty sure the Moose was I got my phone out and waited behind my tree. What I thought I was going to do with my phone I don't know, but somehow I felt better with it in hand. When the Moose moved on we started back down the trail, keeping an eye behind us for a good, long, while.
So, what should you do should you happen across one of these gigantic, yet beautiful creatures?
Most animals have a healthy fear of humans and will run away when they see you. Moose, not so much. Unlike other animals, you don't want to try to appear large and threatening, or stand your ground, you want to vacate the area, quickly. Moose aren't predators, they have no drive to chase you down and eat you, so when you see a Moose it's okay to run away.
If you're lucky you're not going to be face to face with the moose when you see it. We pretty much were since we and the Moose were both traveling down the same trail in opposite directions. If you're lucky the moose will be well off in the woods and will just be satisfied with you continuing on your way down the trail. It can walk away, you can walk away, problem solved.
If you do find yourself face to face with a Moose you really want to keep something big between you and the animal and move away from it. Once you're far enough away the Moose will move on.
The best info I've seen is here and rather than regurgitate it I'm just going to share the article from AMC Outdoors. Read it, know it, and confidently enjoy your hikes. :)
http://www.outdoors.org/publications/outdoors/2010/learnhow/responding-to-moose-encounters.cfm