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Saturday, April 16, 2016

Moose encounters



My lovely wife and I were driving through the White Mountains late in the evening. Two young moose ran out into the road. I expect to see moose when driving so I stopped in plenty of time.

Normally what happens is that I stop the car, put the blinkers on and wait them out. Honking the car horn spooks them. They are unpredictable enough as it is so I normally let them slowly wander off.

I was stopped in the northbound lane and another car stopped in the southbound. Both moose were between us. The other car decided not to wait and leaned on his horn. One of the moose spooked really badly and ran directly at my car. I kept expecting him to turn aside but he had that “deer in the headlights” look and came right at me in my Nissan Versa.

Having no other choice I honked my horn. The moose freaked out, flipped over on its hind legs, fell down, then bolted across the road. As soon as he did the idiot driver sped past.

At that point there was a moose on each side of the road. I expected one of them to eventually cross over. Sure enough, the second moose decided to join the one that freaked out and cut right in front of my car. Once they were both off in the woods I slowly crept past.

It was a slow drive the rest of the way home. Dealing with moose is serious business. They probably weighed almost as much as my car did. It's not unusual for people to get hurt or killed in moose collisions. I'm glad nobody got hurt in this encounter, including the poor moose.

-Sixbears

12 comments:

  1. I had heard from elderly relatives living in the wilds of northern Minnesota that a moose, if irritated enough, has the strength and ability to pretty much dismantle a vehicle. Me...I'm not going to tick one off. Patience is a virtue when it comes to a moose. :)

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    1. I had one do $1800 damage to a van and then walk away.

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  2. The other driver probably had no idea that he/she could've gotten you killed.

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    1. My lovely wife envisioned a hoof coming right through the windshield. Close call. Hope the guy in the other car realized that the made a mistake. Some people are so clueless.

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  3. Figures. Eons ago I drove up through New England and part way across Canada, all the time trying to see a moose. Never did. But there were about 137 "Watch Out for Moose" signs to rub it in though.

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    1. Be careful what you wish for. I had some friends from downstate who made the same complaint. I took them for a ride that evening and saw three. As they were leaving town the next day they hit one and their car was totaled. They were lucky to only have minor injuries.

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  4. Deer can make wreck a car - shudder to think what a moose could do to it.

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    1. It's worse. They are tall so it's common to knock the legs out from under them and their heavy bodies then land on the windshield and roof.

      Just to make it interesting, unlike deer, their eyes do not reflect headlights.

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  5. We have to watch out for deer here in Georgia. And every great once in a while a black bear. Glad you and your car didn't get hurt.

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  6. I thought that any animal that had great night vision had eyes that would reflect light. Why do Moose eyes not reflect light? Do they have poor night vision?

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    1. Part of it is that they are too tall to reflect the light well. I did see one in a ditch on the side of the road and its eye was a very dull gold color in my headlights.

      They move around a lot at night so I assume they see well enough.

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