A hiking guide who was leading a tour recently in Grand Teton National Park snapped a photo of a moose that isn’t hiding but might be difficult for some to spot. Can you spot the moose in Douglas Scott’s image? (Hint, it’s not the distant object …
A hiking guide who was leading a tour recently in Grand Teton National Park snapped a photo of a moose that isn’t hiding but might be difficult for some to spot.
Can you spot the moose in Douglas Scott’s image? (Hint, it’s not the distant object atop the ridge; that’s a radio/cell tower.)
Can you spot the moose?
Scott, who guides in Grand Teton and nearby Yellowstone National Park, told FTW Outdoors that he spotted the moose after pulling over on Highway 89 near the National Elk Refuge.
“I saw the moose immediately, as we had been on the lookout for wildlife in Grand Teton National Park where we had just been watching the sunrise,” said Scott, whose excursions can be booked via The Outdoor Society. “Moose are somewhat common in the area and I had felt slightly frustrated that we had failed to see one up until this point.”
Scott acknowledged that the moose was not in typical moose habitat: near water or nearby meadows.
“The picture was taken at 8 a.m. and while we enjoyed the sighting, the cars driving to and from Jackson from the Tetons didn’t seem to notice the lone moose wandering the hillside, which says more about how well it blended in,” Scott said.
Of the “unique” location of the moose, Scott explained:
“Most moose sightings tend to be when they are along waterways or by willows and other plants. This one was just on the move as we saw it, taking advantage of some exposed plants as it wandered elsewhere.”
The moose in Scott’s image is not sporting antlers, so it does not display the classic moose profile. The animal is circled in the image posted below.
Footage shows the moose running for its life and ultimately falling on the ice as vehicle comes partially into view.
An Alaska resident has been cited for harassing a young moose by allegedly chasing the animal in his four-wheeler along the iced-over Yukon River.
Elliot Edwards, 38, of Pilot Station, was cited “for using a motor vehicle to harass, herd, drive, or molest game,” according to the Alaska Department of Public Safety.
Troopers cited Edwards after receiving a tip from a concerned citizen and reviewing video footage posted to Facebook by Edwards on Jan. 27. (The footage was still public at the time of this post and can be viewed below.)
In the footage, the moose is running for its life and ultimately slips on the ice as the red vehicle comes partially into view.
A dispatch from The Alaska Department of Public Safety:
“The moose attempted to get to safety multiple times, but was unable because of high river banks. The four-wheeler continued to chase the moose until it slipped on the ice.
“[An] investigation determined on January 29, 2024, Edwards used a red Honda four-wheeler to chase a calf moose until it slipped on the ice.”
Edwards is scheduled to be arraigned March 7 in Bethel.
–Generic moose image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Wyoming’s serene and snowy hills call to snowboarders and skiers all over the United States. During a typical day on the slopes, visitors can expect to encounter fields of white, massive evergreen trees, and plenty of other tourists enjoying the winter weather. What you probably aren’t expecting to see is a giant moose chasing you downhill.
On Sunday, February 4, a giant moose is exactly what skiers at Teton Village, Wyoming’s Jackson Hole Mountain Resort encountered. As the video below shows, people skiing down the slopes that day saw a moose galloping after them. Skier Kenneth William Rynearson called out to his friends and told them to ski faster to avoid the animal.
Some on social media accepted this theory while others suggested that the moose carcass had been stood up and staged for a photo opportunity.
An image showing a young moose frozen in place, still standing, was widely shared in Alaska this past week.
But was it so cold recently near Talkeetna – 35 below zero, with heavy snow drifts – that a moose could freeze to death without falling over?
Some on social media accepted this possibility while others suggested that the photographer stood the moose carcass in a clearing for a more striking image.
But Mickey Kenny, the photographer who captured the image last Monday, shot down that theory on a Sharing Alaska Facebook comment thread.
Kenny stated:
“Just for the sake of focusing our efforts in the right direction, I most definitely didn’t stage the moose, nor were there signs of anyone propping it up, though enough people have put that theory out that there must be strong reasons to believe it.”
Kenny said he returned to the site Tuesday and observed that the moose was not leaning against a tree, “but it does look like an alder sort of pinned its hip.”
Kenny added: “Seems like an easy enough thing for the moose to work through, but keeping in mind the insanely deep snow, the fierce cold spell, my thought is that it just accepted the pin and [passed] away.”
More recently, however, Kenny told Alaska’s News Source that friends told him they’d heard that the moose had been moved into the clearing by others others who discovered the carcass near a hiking trail.
Kenny is quoted: “That moose was dead and frozen on the trail, and then, you know, a friend of a friend saw a group of people — like six to eight of them, move the moose carcass off the trail — still no explanation on why it was stood up, or exactly like how it stood up so perfectly, but basically, they did that.”
That hardly solves the mystery. But the death of the moose, regardless of circumstances, illustrates how tough winters can be for large animals that don’t hibernate and can’t easily hide from the elements.
Footage showing a moose strolling past a restroom in Grand Teton National Park is a reminder that large animal encounters can occur just about anywhere.
A guide on Friday shared footage of a moose strolling just inches from a restroom in Grant Teton National Park and asked his Instagram followers: “Can you imagine walking out of this bathroom at this moment?”
Welden stated, “Turns out there are many bathrooms in both Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks BUT you might have to wait to get out of the car until a HUGE bull moose walks past first.”
The clip is reminiscent of a more dramatic (embarrassing?) situation that occurred in Yellowstone in July. In that case, the critter was a massive bison and the man hoping to exit the restroom smartly chose to hold up inside.
Click here to view that footage and note the amusing reaction from tourists in the parking lot, including a child who observes, “The guy is peeking out.”
Both clips show that interesting animal encounters sometimes occur where you least expect them to occur.
If you didn’t grow up around moose, you might not have the healthy fear of them that many outdoorsy Northerners do. Moose are one of North America’s largest land mammals, and they’re not afraid to charge if they feel threatened. With males reaching an average of six feet tall and weighing up to 1,400 pounds, these animals have been known to seriously injure hikers who get in their way.
Still not convinced that moose are a force to be reckoned with? The moose charge video below might just change your mind. Taken by outdoorsman Jeremiah David Bigelow during a snowmobiling trip through Palisades, Idaho, on March 2, the frightening clip depicts a snowmobiler’s narrow escape from an oncoming moose.
In a Facebook post, Bigelow described the encounter. “This humbled us,” Bigelow wrote. “We were riding and my brother got ahead of me. A moose came onto the trail and got between us. I had my boy and two other guys with me. We stopped. Moments before I started filming, the moose charged us but stopped 20’ from me.”
Bigelow’s brother, shown in the video, manages to escape the charging moose by jumping off his snowmobile. His original plan, Bigelow wrote, was to quickly escape via snowmobile. Unfortunately, the vehicle’s engine died, leaving the man no choice but to leap away from the fast-approaching animal.
“Lesson learned … brother should have continued on and given it more space. We should have gotten our sleds turned around as well,” Bigelow wrote. “Bad scenario with an okay outcome. Moose was unharmed and I saw it later walking just fine. Scary.”
While aggressive moose encounters can be scary, there are safety tips that can help you avoid them. First, always give moose their space. Definitely don’t try to feed them. If you end up in close quarters with a moose, do everything you can to put distance between you and the animal. Watch out for warnings that the moose is growing aggressive. And if a moose charges at you? Run.
A woman walking her dog on a snowy sidewalk in Alaska was kicked in the head by a moose charging down the same sidewalk.
A woman walking her dog on a snowy sidewalk in Alaska was kicked in the head by a moose charging down the same sidewalk, and it was captured in video from a passing vehicle whose occupants were too late in warning her.
Tracy Hansen and her dog Gunner were walking the sidewalk of Old Seward Highway in Anchorage last Thursday when the moose charged from behind and essentially ran her over.
“I thought someone had not been paying attention and hit me with a bike or something,” Hansen told KTUU. “I had put my hands up to my head, and I’m like, ‘I’m bleeding.’”
When she sat up and saw the moose ahead of her, Hansen realized it was the moose who ran her over.
Kate Timmons and her family saw it coming as they drove down the street alongside the sidewalk, with Timmons filming the encounter.
“Hey, hey, hey—watch out,” Timmons can be heard yelling out the window moments before contact, and then again as the moose struck Hansen.
Seconds after the encounter, the driver of the vehicle honked the horn, apparently to keep the moose moving along.
But the sequence of events did not sit well with many commenters on the NBC News YouTube channel, which showed the video. A sample of the critical comments:
“Let me grab my camera and video this before warning the woman in enough time to get out of the way. When the moose is done, I’ll honk to scare it as any good citizen would do.”
“The horn honk should have happened a solid 10-15 seconds earlier.”
“Nice of them to inform the people who will be watching this clip AFTER the events, as oppose to immediately warning the person in danger of the approaching threat.”
“Climb on the roof screaming and waving arms while driver blasts the car horn but nooo, make sure you get video footage while that poor lady takes a hoof to her head!!! No End To Gotta-Get-My-Likes Fools.”
“Yeah, just film it don’t try to help her or anything, don’t speed up and try to get her in the car, just film it and yell at the moose like it understands.”
“The lady videoing should have alerted the lady much sooner to get out of the way.”
Nevertheless, Hansen was extremely grateful to the Timmons family for being there to help her after the collision.
“My husband was able to pull her over the snow bank, so we could get her in the truck with her dog and kind of get her out of the way,” Timmons told KTUU. “It definitely seemed unprovoked from our standpoint and it happened so fast it was just like, a matter of getting her out of the situation, getting her help, making sure…you know my big thing was that she didn’t have a head trauma, that there wasn’t a bleed or something.”
Hansen did need staples in her head, and was still recovering Monday from headaches and bruising throughout her body, but that didn’t stop her from walking her dog down the same path.
“We’ll be back on our normal walks,” Hansen told KTUU. “The moose won’t stop that.”
Gene Corrigan is responsible for hiring perhaps the two best coaches in Notre Dame’s recent history in Lou Holtz and Muffet McGraw.
One of my favorite things that has happened since I took over managing Fighting Irish Wire back in October is that things you thought you were aware of or hip to get magnified ten-fold.
That could be assistant coaches being hired or fired, recruiting information or simply something from the history of Notre Dame.
I’ll be honest here (I always am but that’s a way to transition myself out of my comfort zone a bit):
I had no idea who Gene Corrigan was until his death at 91 years old was announced Saturday.
Some quick research helped me discover he wasn’t just the former commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference, but was Notre Dame’s athletic director from 1981 to 1987.
That made me realize that hey, Gene Corrigan is responsible for hiring perhaps the two best coaches in Notre Dame’s recent history in Lou Holtz and Muffet McGraw.
We mourn the loss of Gene Corrigan, our seventh AD and father of Irish men’s lacrosse coach Kevin Corrigan.
Our prayers are with the Corrigans as they celebrate the life of a man who touched so many here at Notre Dame and across collegiate athletics.
I had no idea that Corrigan had three children graduate from the University of Notre Dame, or that one of them, Kevin, had been the lacrosse coach at Notre Dame since 1998.
It’s fascinating to read about a man who graduated from Duke in 1952 then got his start in coaching by leading the basketball, soccer and lacrosse teams of Washington and Lee in 1955.
From there he took a job at the University of Virginia where he spent time again coaching a variety of sports before becoming athletic director at Washington and Lee.
That led him again to Virginia where he was athletic director for a decade before a decade before he took the Notre Dame A-D job, replacing the legendary Edward “Moose” Krause.
I also didn’t know until reading Eric Hansen’s piece Saturday that Lou Holtz was anything but a knockout hire at his time and had been coming off a 6-5 season at Minnesota at the time of his hiring.
Corrigan would go on to commission the ACC after leaving Notre Dame in 1987 through 1995 when he became president of the NCAA.
Corrigan clearly lived an incredible life and oversaw the Notre Dame athletic department at an incredibly fascinating time.
Even if I didn’t know anything about him a day ago, he impact on Notre Dame athletics is clearly without end.
All the best to those who knew him and if you’re like me and didn’t even know of him until now, here’s to hoping you also learned a bit about his important legacy to Notre Dame and college sports.
For three bear cubs on Alaska’s Brooks River, the sight of a giant moose bounding past them might still be etched upon their minds.
For three bear cubs on Alaska’s Brooks River, the sight of a giant moose bounding past might still be etched upon their minds.
The accompanying footage, captured over the weekend via bear cam, shows the cub triplets seemingly mesmerized – possibly terrified – by a bull moose galloping through water just yards away.
Momma bear does not appear in the footage, but she’s probably nearby. Adult brown bears, fishing for salmon elsewhere on the river, are visible in the background.
It’s unclear what prompted the moose to run through the river.
Explore.org, which maintains the bear cams in conjunction with the National Park Service, asked avid bear-cam followers if the cubs might belong to an adult brown bear cataloged as Bear 94.
Brown bears on the Brooks River, in Katmai National Park, are internationally famous thanks to the bear cams and the annual bracket-style competition known as Fat Bear Week.
Fat Bear Week, during which fans vote for their favorite and fattest bears, is held every fall as a tribute to bears’ success in packing calories in advance of hibernation. (A single salmon may contain 4,000 calories and some bears consume dozens of salmon per day.)
This year’s competition is Oct. 5-11 and an older bear nicknamed Otis is the defending champion. Voting for the Fat Bear Junior Finals ended last week, with Bear 94’s triplets losing out to the yearling cub of Bear 909.
