This Hiker Had a Mammoth Bull Moose Casually Walk Past Him
I have never seen anyone get this close to a bull moose and live. A hiker had one of these mammoth animals walk right past him recently and captured amazing video of the encounter.
I want to say out loud that this was not one of our infamous touron encounters where someone is getting way too close to wildlife for a sweet pic. This hiker was out in the back-country of Alaska when he spotted this bull moose feeding. He waited 10 minutes to try and allow the moose to pass. He made the decision to try and quietly pass him by when the bull moose surprised him and decided to stroll on by.
There's one other factor that made this calm moose response even more surprising. Here's a detail the hiker noticed on the video:
If you look closely, you can see this bull moose has porcupine quills in his left hind leg.
Ouch. If you have ever tangled with a mad porcupine, you know their quills are like pointy razors. For a bull moose to be in obvious pain, but just quietly stroll on by is amazing to me.
Kudos to this hiker for trying to do the right thing and stay out of this bull moose's way. The only other thing he could have done would be to backtrack and completely avoid the moose. His choice to try and pass fortunately did not end badly for him or Bullwinkle.