Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Weird moose behavior

My wife was riding her bike down the road and a small bull came out of the trees and chased her for about 80 yards.
She rode her bike another quarter of a mile or so and waited. She was out of sight of the moose.

After calling the neighbor and waiting for him to show up in a vehicle she rode back towards home. Moose came out of the woods in a different spot and chased her around the vehicle until she jumped inside.
Moose left. She got out and moose came back out of the trees and chased her around the vehicle again.

After a few minutes of the bull being gone into the trees she got out and started heading down the road on her bike. The moose again came out of the trees and chased her. Neighbor was following my wife but the moose cut in front of him to chase her. (he was prepared to put the moose down) After about 100 yards the bull went back into the trees.

Bull was reported as very scraggly looking, not to mention agitated.

Both of our dogs were running with her but the bull has been around the dogs enough that both moose and dogs ignore each other.

Another Nikiski worman was injured by a moose a few days earlier.

Late spring? hungry? any other probably causes for the behavior?

Field notes: an electric bike is the way to go if being chased by a moose

GO BACK DO THE 3 S.S.S. before someone gets hurt

Forgot to add that she has contacted F&G about the issue. They told her to pack when she does chores and DLP if needed.

I rode my bike and hers also up and down that road for the week prior without an issue. Stuff happens when one goes to the salt mine.

Glad all are safe, Dan!

Had a similar experience last year. Got chased by a young cow, evaded, she went back in the woods, I continued on, and she came back all business. I shot her in the neck, which made her lose interest but didn't kill her.

I would be sure to be armed, but they are just unpredictable. Got charged by another young cow about a week ago in the yard but was able to dodge her easily. My theory with the first one was that she had a calf stashed nearby, but never did see it. Young bulls have been by far the #1 offenders for charges, until my recent string of bad luck with the ladies. Maybe it is just their first big run up of hormones that makes them ornery?

So, she kept getting out of the vehicle? Smart gal

My wife is smart and has experience working around animals. We raise reindeer and have a bull - keeping a close eye on his behavior is a safety precaution all year long.
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The moose went back into the woods each time before she go out and attempted to get the bike home. This fiasco lasted almost an hour.
She has been around moose for decades and is knowledgeable about their normal behavior.
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this bulls behavior was way out of the norm for this time of year. Cows with new born calves - well one can expect to get charged if you get too close.
Observations or experience from others as to the why is the reason for the post.

Now if it had happened to me....I'd still be riding up and down the road trying to figure out how many times the moose would charge

mike - it is about time for a trail ride and bbq...

Dan I no nothing about moose . but a good friends wife that is an avid hunter has had a lot of WT bucks in the last 30 years come to her when she is on her period . had bucks come in running when on a stand and follow her to the truck when she walked out . I don't know if that was the reason but she would kill a buck when nobody saw a deer . and it was any buck big or small .

Probably several things adding up to stress that bull. Poor condition, and his mama ran him off to have her new calves, perhaps. Also, temperaments among individuals vary. He was likely pissed off and used from multiple attempts to rejoin his mother. I killed a young bull one fall that, even then, kept attempting to join his mother and her calf. I'd watched them for several weeks prior to season, and she took a chunk out him more than once. I fixed his problem for him with a running shot- shotgun slug at 30 yards... I jumped him, and startled, he made a bee-line for the old lady, but had to get by me first.

We had a young bull here years ago that was just plain Ornery - which is what we called him. He blind-sided and bruised one neighbor lady when she was getting in her car. Another neighbor wanted to go to town one day but Ornery was by his truck. He nailed Ornery in the ribs with a flu-flu arrow. Ornery jumped, then picked up the arrow and chewed on it. Rip decided he could go to town the next day. Rip later ate Ornery I think, season be hanged.....

He almost got me one day when I was pounding on my boat, with him bedded in the driveway about 35 yards away. I looked up in time to see him charging me, and barely beat him to the door, where he stood with his face pressed against the glass daring me to come out and fight like a man. In turning the corner at the stairs to the deck above, following me as I made the door, he knocked my Pentax film camera off the steps and broke it.

Another time Ornery was licking road salt off my tailgate when I came out, and he started for me. I went back in the house, got my wrist-rocket and the biggest piece of split shot I could find, and when he tried it again I nailed him in the nose at about 10 feet. I went to town....

One spring I was coming back from town and had to ease the truck by a yearling cow just separated from her mother.

She was standing in a puddle in the middle of the road, head and ears hanging, and didn't move as I went by her, her head just inches from my mirror. A more dejected looking animal I have never seen - even my dogs! My wife had come home 20 minutes or so earlier, with identical scenario.

"My Mom doesn't love me anymore!"

Another time Ornery was licking road salt off my tailgate when I came out, and he started for me. I went back in the house, got my wrist-rocket and the biggest piece of split shot I could find, and when he tried it again I nailed him in the nose at about 10 feet. I went to town.... smile

Marbles for the win.

#BTDT

Ya betcha!

Probably Trump Derangement Syndrome... or the mange.

They are going from their winter to summer coat, we had a cow with 2 calves come by our place this weekend and she looked very scraggly.

Bikes seem to set off critters

Lost my marbles years ago.

Yes, especially with horses. Horses view bikes as predators. They relatively small and low to the ground and move quietly. Always have to call out to bikers on a trail to speak so the horses realize it’s a human.

I still have a couple spares!

Worked a Yellowstone Park a couple of years full-time. Critters would ignore walkers when a Bike came by a lot of time they would charge towards the biker saw it many times. Something about the bike would set them off. Don't encourage biking in bear country, we will find out when my electric bike gets here.

Medred got taken off his bike and bit by a sow with cubs.

KK Alaska - electric bikes are fun,. chased or not chased.
What bike did you end up choosing?

Bull has seemed to have left the neighborhood without hassling any of the other neighbors..

Wife is still not back to riding her bike yet.

Thanks to all whom offered experiences and possible causes.

Dan

Ordered a RAD Fat tire shipped from Seattle have to use a freight forwarder! They shipped accessories separately against my instructions, they split shipping with me.

Bud has a RAD and he likes it. https://www.radpowerbikes.com/products/radrover-electric-fat-bike

Aren't electric bikes cheating?

Yup, just like a horse... only smarter...

Now here is some weird moose behavior. One has sent a lower leg and hoof into my yard two days running, via Honey HalfLab. Fresh, cut bone on both.

I wonder how they do that?

Yesterday's indicated it had been buried- I'm guessing a Honey stash.

I figured day before yesterday someone had poached that little bull that's been hanging around, but some dinner guests on their way home sent us a picture that evening of the bull just 200 yards up the road, so it wasn't him.

I'll tag on something else here from yesterday.

I took the pack out for a short walk, down the wide cut trail that borders my lot, over and down the hill to the mile-wide swamp below, then around the base of the hill on a game trail to the road and home - about a half mile.

That's about all Henry can do with his joint and leg problems. Henry is a 80-90 lb Lab/Pit mix that lives about 500 yards up the road, but we are keeping him for a few weeks while his people are Outside.

Henry and Honey were 40 yards ahead of me, when I looked to see what Chako Wunderwiener was sniffing at a couple feet in front of me, right in the trail.. He had his nose about an inch from a dead baby hare, just larger than my fist. I told him to "leave it", and he backed off a foot. The big dogs had completely missed it. Sometimes maybe it's an advantage to live with your nose 6 inches off the ground?

Not wanting the other dogs to eat it or roll in it later, I went to pick it up. When I touched it, the little bastid was off like a shot. Well, baby hares just ain't all that fast. But they sure can hold real still! If I'd known it was still alive, I had my phone camera with me.

Chako was gaining on it and would have caught it, but I yelled no and he stopped and came back from 20 feet out.

He's the most mindful Dachshund I've ever been around.

Must be something wrong with that boy.....

You can see Henry's right hind is all messed up. Need to do some trail clearing again. .

Electric horses, or bike riding horses?

Please advise.

If you have to ask...

Good video showing bikes and critters

https://youtu.be/KcuXo9ficdk

First question that popped into my mind was how can you tell if a moose is acting weird?

Ive had LOTS more "adventures" with moose than with bears....

Bull migrated out of the neighborhood. Stands by the highway watching cars go by

Wife is back to riding her ebike. For those on the fence about ebikes - they are fun! shopping for one for me now.

Thanks Ingwe for the chuckle when reading your question about "how can you tell if a moose is acting weird".