In a new video posted to Instagram, a dog and a moose got into a charging match near some woods.
In the TikTok video, the dog, whose name is apparently “Brody,” was investigating a mammoth moose towards the rear of his backyard. The moose charged at him. Then Brody’s owner quickly leaped into action, yelling at Brody to run.
House of Highlights posted the video.
Brody’s owner eventually cajoled him away from the moose, who followed them at a distance.
Moose Charges Dog
According to National Geographic, many times when a moose charges, it’s a “bluff” charge, intended to scare away people or other animals. Still, it’s an especially bad idea to approach a female moose with calves, as mother moose are protective and may be quite aggressive.
That wasn’t the only encounter between a moose and a dog this year. In September, a woman in Jackson Hole, Wyoming was walking her two dogs when they came across a moose in a pasture. The moose jumped a fence and charged after the woman and her dogs. She and her dogs escaped by ducking into an apartment foyer.
And in June, an Anchorage woman walked away from a half-hour attack by a female moose who went after her and her dogs. She said she heard her dogs barking and then suddenly a moose came flying at them.
Multiple Moose Injuries This Year
A spokesman for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game told the Anchorage Daily News that moose have injured multiple people in 2020.
“If you see a cow with calves, she’s much more amped up than normal,” Dave Battle said. “The calves aren’t big enough to escape from predators, so their strategy is to stand their ground and charge at whatever they feel might be a threat in order to protect the calves.”
Wildlife officials told the Daily News that people with dogs, in particular, should give moose “an extremely wide berth.” They said moose consider dogs their foe and will occasionally go out of their way to kick a dog.
