Moose in the Mountains

Moose are very large animals.  The bulls, in fact, can weigh close to a solid ton if not more.  They are normally quite peaceful, but like any animal, can get a bit antsy around humans, especially humans that simply get too close to them.  This is probably because they have been hunted by us ever since we probably had our first face to face encounter.  They supposedly came with us across the Bering Land Bridge, and like two other icons of the north, the Great Northern Loon and the Grey Wolf, can be found both in Eurasia and North America.  As in the case of the Grey Wolves, however, their range has been very much reduced because of over hunting.  Here is where they can found these days, in brown, and where I think they might have been, in yellow:

No one really knows how far south they used to go in pre-colonial times.  Most petroglyphs in the west that survive were made at relatively low elevations (less than 6,000 feet) and thus out of the kind of cooler habitat that moose require, at least as far as the southern Rockies and Sierra ranges of Mexico go.  Like the wolves, they probably extended into New Mexico and possibly even into the Sierras of Mexico in isolated populations, as far south as the 28th parallel (at which point the mountains level off to less than 8,000 feet and drier conditions prevail).  Moose require cooler temperatures and aquatic vegetation to thrive, conditions that the northern Sierra Madre Occidental certainly has.  Just imagine it, forests of pines and fir with moose, grey wolves, jaguars, and parrots!  Anyway, back to the land of the present, and a bit to the north.

Moose currently range naturally down in the Wasatch mountains of central Utah, and have been (re)introduced into Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park.  Here is one lovely moose browsing in the meadows near the headwaters of the Colorado river.

Unfortunately, people were getting really close to it, and by people, I mean crowds of people who clogged the road to see it.  The moose was visibly nervous and made a few snorts, bared its teeth, and bluff charged about three times.

I was standing next to a woman who had her lower jaw pretty much unhinged at the sight of a real, wild moose.  I mentioned to her that the people who were only twenty feet away from the thing were being stupid and pushing their luck.  I made my way back to the car, only to find her then delicately skipping towards the animal, and apparently just to snap some pictures.  I don't know about you, but I think I got some decent shots from much farther away.  Amazing what a camera zoom can do!

A moose sighting in the Colorado Rockies is a wonderful reminder of what a diverse continent we really have.