Most people are afraid of bears, but even more dangerous in Northern regions are Moose.
While moose aren’t necessarily deadlier in behavior than bears, moose populations outnumber bear populations greatly, so you’re much more likely to have an encounter with a moose.
In Alaska, moose outnumber bears 3 to 1, and they injure around 5-10 people annually.
That’s more than grizzly bear and black bear attacks combined, in the state of Alaska.
In today’s post, we’re going to cover moose attacks, moose-related injuries and fatalities, and what you can do to protect yourself.
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Moose Attacking Humans
Moose are generally peaceful creatures, and prefer to avoid conflict and run away.
The probability of an encounter going wrong with a moose isn’t as high as a bear, however there are way more moose than bears, so you’re much more likely to have some kind of an encounter with them.
Moose are huge, and not to be messed with. In Alaska alone they can have a population of greater than 175,000, and weigh up to 1,500 pounds or 680 kilograms.
One dangerous thing about moose is that they do NOT fear humans, unlike other creatures such as deer.
For this reason, they have no problem trampling you or charging at you. When this happens, there is very little that you can do besides try to run away.
They usually only attack if they feel provoked, or if their young are nearby. Moose attacks spike in September and October which is mating season, and early Spring also due to young calves being raised.
Dog-Provoked Attacks
Many moose attacks on humans are actually provoked from dogs. Moose hate dogs and wolves, and become extremely aggressive by their presence, especially at a dog that barks.
A dog accompanied by a human will typically bark at the moose, run up to it, and then run back to the human, triggering the moose to attack both the dog and the human owner.
When in an area with moose and bringing along your dog, it’s extremely important to take care of your dog and prevent an encounter from happening.
If without a dog it is easy to not provoke a moose, but dogs are unpredictable and scare the moose, as it thinks that every dog is a wolf.
Officials in the State of Colorado reported that many if not all moose attacks on humans involved the presence of dogs aggravating the moose first!
What To Do If Attacked
If a moose begins to act aggressive towards you, try to get out of sight, immediately. Hide behind a tree, car, get inside, or otherwise get out of sight of the moose.
If you are out of the moose’s sight, then you’ll be out of its mind.
Assuming there’s nothing to hide behind then you can run as fast as you can in the opposite direction away from it.
In many cases, running away will be okay. Moose CAN run faster than us humans, but will likely let you get away.
If you get attacked by a moose or are getting trampled, do NOT resist or fight back, as this will only trigger it to keep attacking you.
Curl up into the fetal position and cover your head/neck with your arms/hands and stop moving and the moose will likely go away.
Remember that the moose is extremely huge and deadly, there is very little that you could do in a physical one on one fight, so curling up and waiting out the attack is the best you can do, assuming it caught up to you.
Whenever possible avoid encounters with moose as they are too big and strong to deal with.
Run away as quickly as possible, get out of sight, and curl up into the fetal position protecting your head/neck if you encounter a moose, especially if you have a dog.
Wildlife x Team International
If you think that you have a wildlife or pest infestation inside of your home, be sure to contact us by calling 855-WILDLIFE or by visiting www.wildlifexteam.com. You can also click here to FIND A LOCATION near you.
We specialize in safe & responsible removal and whenever possible return wild animals to the wild.
We also restore any damage that was caused by the creatures, and prevent it from ever happening again.
Thanks for reading, and we look forward to seeing you next week!
Thanks,
-Wildlife x Team International