Seriously. When canoeing in Maine, our ranger spotted a female moose with a calf and had us paddle to the other side of the lake to avoid them. Didn’t want to even get close enough for them to take notice of us. As we were getting ready to go home, he showed us a fiberglass canoe that a moose had taken objection to – it was torn up, holed in multiple places, and the stern bit was all floppy.
Good call.
There are times I’m glad to live in the UK where the most dangerous creatures are cows and XL Bully dogs.
Of course if you look at the stats there are a heck of a lot more people in the UK killed by dogs each year than there are Alaskans killed by moose each year. 23 people in the UK killed that way in 2023!
Not to mention the most dangerous animal of all…
They are remarkably fast swimmers! If you ever see one go, they have a wake behind them!
According to the Alaska Dept of Fish and Game they can sustain 6mph for 1-2 hours which is not just faster than a swimmer, it’s faster than a canoe…
So in short. Never ever get close to a Moose 
They can also dive to great depths.
littlefeatherr
Unrestrained summer fun 
weaselle
this must be such a delicate experience for a creature that can dive two stories deep and has been seen cliff diving into the ocean
Moose stealing apples from someone’s backyard stomps out an automated lawn mower.
“Do not hinder me"
srsfunny
Canadian Nightmare
dear-tumb1r
JESUS CHRIST
WHO THE FUCK LET THAT EXIST
digitaldiscipline
The Canadian regionalization DLC for Nyan Cat looks amazing.
rehfan
This is nothing I wanted and yet everything I ever needed
Bless you Canada and your gigantic dinosaur snowplow monsters
thanos-the-rad-titan
Woo woo, motherfucker!
theactualcluegirl
Goddamned Mezolithic Megafauna’s what that is. Goddamned warranty expired on those things centuries ago, but do they care? Do they go decently extinct, like the ground sloth, gigantopethicus, or wooly rhino? Fuck that, they’re doing downhill runs on your favorite skiing course is what. Because Fuck it, is why.
rembrandtswife
Now I understand why moose are built the way they are.
It’s so they can gallop untrammelled through six-odd feet of snow.
emma-regina4ever
Jesus Christ I read those mother fuckers could run 55km an hour but seeing it is another thing especially plowing through the snow
killer-squirtle
DASHING THROUGH THE SNOW
GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE WAY
It’s really sad to see a bear reduced to stealing cars. I don’t think the poor beast is going to get much for that SUV at the chop shop, either.
In Newfoundland, and I assume Alaska, the majority of people killed by moose are killed by hitting them with their cars. The front end of the car goes under their body, and that huge mass comes across the hood and through the windshield. There are warnings everywhere about not driving too fast at night.
Bull moose in the rutting season are notoriously aggressive and ready to fight anything — preferably another bull, but you’ll do for practice.
Precisely what happened to my parents’ car in the 80s. We all survived without a scratch, because of some luck and also because Toyota was ahead of its time in building safe car frames. After the moose’s legs were knocked out, the moose approached the windshield back-first, and was too wide to fit through. Incredible luck. Instead, the windshield caved in as one piece (hurrah for safety glass!), the very surprised moose shat itself and moose poop went all over the front-seat occupants, and the moose then rolled across the top of the car, bending the frame along the way. The frame didn’t collapse (thanks 80s Toyota!), but did bend inward by a couple inches.
The moose got up and ran away. No obvious broken legs / hips / etc. We got the car towed and got a ride home. When we got home, the cat could not stop sniffing the jackets of the people in the front seat. “What the hell have you been up to?”
Wow…
That’s one helluva “lived-to-tell-the” tale; glad you & yours made it out the other side basically unscathed. (Sorry, ‘moose poop’ does count as some damage, at least psychologically.)
Mostly harm to the dignity.
Not too much, if you are willing to share the story.
Self deprecating humor is often a good thing.
From his son’s statement
I don’t think this needs clearing up for anyone viewing this page, but Dale was highly experienced around wildlife. He was intimately familiar with nature, and had no naivete about its danger. This was not a hapless fool stumbling into danger — this was a person who went out looking for a great photo, knowing the risks, and got caught in a dangerous moment. The moose, obviously, is not at fault. To the concerned neighbors, I say — quell your primate spear rattling. The ungulate mother need not die. She was just protecting her offspring. Dale had remarked the previous day that the brush was particularly thick this year — thick enough to get closer than intended, and surprise a wild animal by accident.
Glad you were all okay. Getting your car totalled is sort of the best-case scenario in a moose encounter. I’ve had a cow moose and her calf run across the road right in front of us on the main highway through Algonquin Park.
Just two incidents from the last couple of days:
"One of two Muskoka Paramedic Service ambulances responding to the crash also collided with another moose. The ambulance was “extensively damaged,” but no injuries were reported.
“Officers responding to the collision had just finished investigating another collision between a car and moose, but no serious injuries,” OPP say."
Lucky motorcyclist (and moose):
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