About 30mph according to the speedometer in the truck.

Driving up the Dalton Highway north of the Arctic Circle today and she was standing out in the middle of the road. I slowed almost to a stop and she started running up the road, I followed and clocked her at about 30mph.

It was all fun and games until a southbound semi joined the party. He slowed, she stopped, I stopped, she turned around, stared me down and acted like she was going to charge my truck. I had visions of a squashed front end broken radiator making for a very bad day. Then briefly conemtplated how accurately I could shoot a shoot a Smith & Wesson 629 Mountain Gun weak handed around the A-pillar of my truck.

Fortunately Ms. Bullwinkle decided to exit the roadway and return to the forest.

Methinks you need to recalibrate your Hu-Mor-Meter and/or your Serious Detector.

To the OP....I can't get over how big those things are. Looks like her head would be level with the roof of your truck!

quote:

Originally posted by AllenInWV:
Methinks you need to recalibrate your Hu-Mor-Meter and/or your Serious Detector.

To the OP....I can't get over how big those things are. Looks like her head would be level with the roof of your truck!

1. Agreed. He was just following her up the road, it's not like he was bumping her in the ass with his truck.

2. Unless he's driving a lifted 4x4, it very likely IS taller than his truck. We see them pretty regular around here and an adult male could easily rest his chin on the roof of my Tundra.

We were driving a Hyundai Elantra and stopped to look at the map of the kinking trails we wanted to visit, when a shadow blocked my wife's window.

It was a moose calf, standing taller than our car. While my wife was amazed that she could have reached out the window and touched it, I was frantically looking around for the mother.

We started to drive off, and the calf matched our pace. I sped up to about 25 and the calf finally veered off back into the woods.

While some may think that OP was "messing with the wildlife", this is actually a common occurrence with these animals. Had he driven into the field to chase it, or had he revved the engine to spook it would have been a different situation.

quote:

Originally posted by OMCHamlin:

Me thinks me original opinion remains unchanged by either of your comments.

That's the great thing about living in a free country. Have a nice day.

While living in MT I saw close to 200 griz (I’d check closed trails with a friend who was back country bear management ranger in Glacier). I never had an issue

The only animal I ever got charged by and I quickly scaled the closest tree was a cow moose. She stood there head butting the tree for about an hour

Having been charged by a moose in northern southern Canada (what I call the part of extreme northern Minnesota where my wife’s family is from) I can give you the only answer you need


Faster than you. (And me)

Moose are mean spirited animals. My wife’s grandfather was a forest ranger from when he returned from WW2 until state mandated retirement, and after that he still worked for them running survey lines and clearing out delinquent beaver (giggle) until he died at 95 years old.

I went out with him several times. He said he was never scared of bear or wolves, and encountered plenty. But moose. Moose worried him.

Just putting your truck in reverse and backing away would have been a better move. The OP followed the moose to see how fast she would run. A Game Warden or LEO may have made a arrest. There are rules to pursueing, hunting, harry or worry game animals. Something tells me its not legal to chase them with your vehicle.

The amazing thing to see is a bull moose with a 5' wide rack running full speed through trees 3' apart. I don't know how they do it because I couldn't get a good enough look back over my shoulder whilst running for my life.

I give meese a wide berth. They'll ruin your day.

Cool. How long did it keep the 30mph pace?

quote:

Originally posted by David Lee:
Just putting your truck in reverse and backing away would have been a better move. The OP followed the moose to see how fast she would run. A Game Warden or LEO may have made a arrest. There are rules to pursueing, hunting, harry or worry game animals. Something tells me its not legal to chase them with your vehicle.

I lived in Alaska 5 years and neither LEOs nor wildlife officers were known to have a sense of humor about this and all they would've seen was a truck going 30 mph chasing a moose. Even if they're standing in the middle of the road licking the salt (happened to me), you have to sit there without honking your horn or trying to intimidate them with your vehicle.

On oil & gas construction projects we had to have state sanctioned training for heavy equipment operators for them to scare away (called hazing) polar bears or grizzly bears. A heavy equipment operator w/o the training could've been fined if seen hazing a bear. Additionally, we had armed (state sanctioned training as well) security with 12 gauge shotguns loaded fire cracker, beanbag, slug, slug, slug, slug.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
The amazing thing to see is a bull moose with a 5' wide rack running full speed through trees 3' apart. I don't know how they do it because I couldn't get a good enough look back over my shoulder whilst running for my life.

I give meese a wide berth. They'll ruin your day.

I was up in NW Ontario in the middle of nowhere for a week of fishing (on the English River System) mid to late September. We stayed at a remote outpost - the fishing was great. Beautiful area, heavily wooded. The camp owner was out practicing his moose calls, but I never heard a response. Much later that night I ran out to the outhouse - while mid-business I heard what sounded like trees crashing behind the outhouse. There was a bull moose approaching the outpost. It was so loud I thought he was going to push the outhouse over .

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:

quote:

Originally posted by David Lee:
Just putting your truck in reverse and backing away would have been a better move. The OP followed the moose to see how fast she would run. A Game Warden or LEO may have made a arrest. There are rules to pursueing, hunting, harry or worry game animals. Something tells me its not legal to chase them with your vehicle.

I lived in Alaska 5 years and neither LEOs nor wildlife officers were known to have a sense of humor about this and all they would've seen was a truck going 30 mph chasing a moose. Even if they're standing in the middle of the road licking the salt (happened to me), you have to sit there without honking your horn or trying to intimidate them with your vehicle.

This is undoubtedly true, and going forward, don't chase wildlife in a car. But this is in the past, and no harm was done, so let it just be a "teaching moment" for all of us.

quote:

Originally posted by OMCHamlin:
So, as a hunter, I have exactly zero problem with shooting beautiful and very tasty animals.
Other then that, I don't fuck with them because I think that's an asshole thing to do.
In that light, maybe you could have put one in her leg and then clocked her, how fast could she have gone then? Maybe she would have left the road and crawled off in the woods to die slowly. Cool.

Just saying...

Lighten up Francis.

No, I was not harassing the moose. The picture was snapped when I first rolled up on her. She took off running and I was following from quite a ways back giving her distance. I was not chasing or trying to force her off the road. I had just crested a small hill before seeing the moose. I didn't exactly want to get rear ended by a long nosed Peterbilt hauling pipe up to Prudhoe Bay, so having some distance between me and the crest of the hill seemed like a good idea.

In the future maybe I need to post smiley faces to go along with my posts. Shooting around the A-pillar of the truck was intended as sarcasm, I thought that would be implied by the shear ridiculousness of it.

quote:

Originally posted by OMCHamlin:

Moosen are big, fast, and usually calm if left alone. Viewed from afar is a good idea. My mil has moose look in her kitchen window regularly. She once had the bad fortune of getting between a mama and her calf. 1/2 hour of doing the tree dance, and mama moose left.

^ Wow, bet you're the life of a party.

quote:

Originally posted by PeteF:
Moosen are big, fast, and usually calm if left alone. Viewed from afar is a good idea. My mil has moose look in her kitchen window regularly. She once had the bad fortune of getting between a mama and her calf. 1/2 hour of doing the tree dance, and mama moose left.

My employee's husband was a paratrooper at JBER and the Colonel was late the day they were deploying to Afghanistan. He didn't want to leave a vehicle at the base while deployed so he rode his mountain bike, and while whizzing down a trail on base he found himself between mama and her calves. He did the tree dance for 30 minutes with mama. At least he had a good story when he finally arrived

quote:

Originally posted by OMCHamlin:

Nope, I would call out clear jackleg behavior any day of the week, it just so happened it was Monday, and all the BS to the contrary, I stand behind my commentary and opinion of the poster. To say that that moose just "happened to be running along the road" at 30mph while a mook in a truck was "moseying down the road" behind her is horseshit, and every one of you that speaks to the contrary damn well knows it!

Just curious, is there a minimum number of feet/yards that must be maintained between your vehicle and wildlife in AK?
In HI feds say to stay 100yds from a whale while boating, state recommends to stay 150ft from other marine mammals. (not a law)

When does it go from "I'm just driving on the same road a moose happens to be running on" to harassing wildlife? Is it solely in the eye of the beholder or does any of it lie in the intent of the person?