Meeting a moose

Young moose - Young moose crossing the road
@Torunn (8607)
Norway
September 6, 2010 4:08pm CST
There's been lot of moose wandering around in town this summer but I haven't met any of them. I haven't really seen moose, I've passed some while driving or riding but not very close up. Today when I drove home from the stable two crossed the road in front of me and continued through the field on the other side of the road. The older one was huge! Both of them looking at me and my friend http://www.picable.com/People/Women/Adult-and-Young-Moose-in-a-Field.1600817 Anyone else live close to wildlife you hardly ever see? I know there's a lot of badger around here, but they're nocturnal (but not afraid of people) so taking pictures is a bit difficult.
2 people like this
9 responses
@jb78000 (15139)
6 Sep 10
yes. in fact the only wildlife i see very often are rabbits. i know there are foxes all over the place here and i haven't seen one. also a town i go to a lot has seals and dolphins within sight of the town. i have seen the seals once and i'd assume the dolphins were a lie but too many people have seen them. personally i prefer to go pigeon spotting.
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@jb78000 (15139)
6 Sep 10
used to see otters, foxes and hares quite often but i grew up in the sticks. how come you've never seen wild rabbits? - you get them everywhere. do the moose eat them all in norway?
@Torunn (8607)
• Norway
6 Sep 10
I think it's too cold for wild rabbits here. There are hares and polar hares, but no rabbits as far as I know. According to the internet (the net is always right you know :-) ) someone took wild rabits from Shetland and put them on two Norwegian islands around 1900, and in the 1980s they introduced them to an island in the Oslofjord. No idea why, as they don't really belong there and graze the grass to low and make life hard for other small animals. Bad rabbits :-) They really "belong" in south and middle Europe though, they've been introduced in your parts of the world I think. Some time around 1300 or something like that? Moose eat blueberry bushes. There's the odd wolverine or lynx though, they'd take them. Or badgers. There's a badger living under the loo at our summer/winterhouse. When my father makes too much noise the badger comes down and scratches at the door to make him stop.
@Torunn (8607)
• Norway
6 Sep 10
The biggest surprise I've given someone along the lines of things you've never seen was when I told my Australian friend that I had never seen a cockroach before. We were in Bangkok then so we didn't have to wait long before one showed up, but she really couldn't understand how someone could have lived for 27 years without seeing a cockroach. Haven't seen one since though.
@alextub (14)
• New Zealand
16 Sep 10
Its great to hear there are animals in the wild you get to see in other parts of the world. In New Zealand here most of our wild animals are regarded as pests, like possums, rabbits, ferrets, all introduced to the country as population arrived here. Wild pigs, goats and deer that are in the wild are generally hunted. We have though a great variety of protected native birds and thankfully some of these are becoming more common as we are all becoming more aware of the environment and growing more of the native trees in built up areas. We occasionally see Tui birds sipping nectar from the flax bush by the kitchen window here, it is so beautiful with its shiney plumage and white tuft of feathers under its chin. We are surrounded by forest here so get to see the birds more than those in the cities.
@Torunn (8607)
• Norway
17 Sep 10
I don't think we saw any Tui birds when I visited a friend on New Zealand 3 years ago, but we did see some Kea's. Really cool birds, although we were a bit worried over whether it would ruin our rental car or not. It went for the wind screen wipers with a vengeance! We saw some wild animals too, but they didn't live on land. (whales and seals :-) ) Never seen that many sheep before though, quite impressed really.
@Torunn (8607)
• Norway
27 Sep 10
New Zealand seemed quite safe, at least compared to Australia! I was there first and got stung by some strange plant, and I got small blisters every now and then for months afterwards. Luckily I didn't meet any dangerous spiders or snakes. The dangerous stuff on Iceland seems more things you do to yourself (falling into rivers and things like that)
• New Zealand
17 Sep 10
Haha, yes Keas can be pretty destructive, they have been known to tear the rubber from vehicles. If you walk into the bush or go hiking on any of the tracks here in NZ you would hear the tuis, they make a very distinctive gutteral sound at the end of their song. They are good mimickers too, sing the song of the bellbird, but at the end of their song give this gutteral sound. We do have a fair number of sheep, especially in the South Island, mainly cows where we are. Glad to hear you got out of NZ unscathed...haha.
@peavey (16936)
• United States
6 Sep 10
Like macdingolinger, I live in town right now and don't get to see any wildlife except birds, unless I get out of town. I'm not too far from the mountains, so it's nice to get up there now and then. Moose can be dangerous! I saw one from a little dirt road one time, really close. It was standing in a swampy area, eating. We stopped, but he decided to check us out and we left rather suddenly. :)
@peavey (16936)
• United States
6 Sep 10
Wow, I don't think I'd run after one! We have some pretty big moose here, so I'm not sure if a horse would be bigger or not. The feet are different, though, and a moose is wild, so that's probably where the difference is. If a moose trampled vegetation everywhere he went, there would soon be nothing left.
@Torunn (8607)
• Norway
6 Sep 10
We stopped, went out of our cars and ran after them! But it was two bulls, not mating season, not a female with calf so the moose were more afraid of us I think. And then a big trailer came and they ran up in the forest again. If I see them again I hope they run out into the field again instead :-) For some reason, they made nearly no mess on the field. I'm sure my horse would have trampled half of it had he walked the same way. (but then he's probably heavier than a moose)
• United States
7 Sep 10
What a neat sight to see! There's an occasional deer by a creek a mile or two away by a creek. Otherwise once in a while I'll see I possum late at night when I get home from work. Otherwise I see rabbits pretty often.
@Torunn (8607)
• Norway
27 Sep 10
There's no wild rabbits here so if you see one in the wild, it's probably a lost pet. There's a few, but I don't think they survive the winters this far north. On Shetland and Orkney we saw a lot of rabbits but hardly any on of them were alive! :-/ Lot of roadkill out there.
• Philippines
26 Sep 10
wow! I actually would love to live in the countryside,1 to 2 hours away from the city.it feels great coming home to a peaceful place with fresh air.I would love to live in a farm,with lots of animals and trees.I wouldn't mind seeing a moose or two,but I have to be careful since they are very unpredictable.I would love to see a moose without their antlers.
@Torunn (8607)
• Norway
27 Sep 10
They're usually afraid of people, so they'll walk/run the other way once they have spotted you. Quite sensible beings, unless you meet a moose cow with calf. I just had visitors from the UK, now moose sightings this time, we saw a tiny frog and heard lemmings. Not really as exciting as moose :-)
• United States
6 Sep 10
That is really cool. I live in town right now so the only wildlife I get to enjoy are birds. However, I installed a bird feeder and enjoy watching them eat every day! I haven't seen a moose, although I've seen a lot of different animals. I guess the coolest would be alligators and the coral snake I once saw in the wild!
• United States
7 Sep 10
Maybe the moose ran out of food or something! I don't know what might make them all come into town like that it is so unusual. There are four kinds of poisonous snakes in our state. We have all four of them! The coral snake is poisonous. If it bit someone as far out in the woods as I was they would likely die but they are not deadly if you can get treatment quickly.
@Torunn (8607)
• Norway
7 Sep 10
Poisonous snakes are often very pretty but a bit scary ... I was worried when I went to Australia, nearly all animals you here about there are one of the most poisonous of its kind in the world. In the end I ended up being stung by some plant, not an animal! It itched for months afterwards, very annoying.
@Torunn (8607)
• Norway
6 Sep 10
We got some very confuse moose in town this summer. It's about 170 000 inhabitants here, fairly big for Norway, but young and confused moose don't bother about that. Some they had to take down, others were transported back to the wood. Snakes are cool! Especially if you have a clue so you know whether they're dangerous or not. I have no idea, but then there's only adders here.
@JudithP (295)
• Canada
7 Sep 10
Hi Torunn. I live in northern, Ontario, Canada. In our small town seeing wildlife isn't a once in a lifetime thing. Bears and raccoons are our usual visitors, but we get to see foxes, coyotes, moose, deer and the odd timber wolf. The bears can actually be quite bothersome but if left alone they go on their merry way.
@Torunn (8607)
• Norway
7 Sep 10
Most people here who walk a lot in the forest see wildlife all the time. For some reason the moose seem to avoid me, I've met one when I was riding. Some of my friends see them all the time when they ride in the forest. I usually see a lot of birds though, they're not so afraid of you when you ride. I'd love to see bears and wolves but maybe from a shelter or a car, not from horse-back.
1 person likes this
• Quezon City, Philippines
7 Sep 10
you're lucky to have seen a real live moose. in my country there aren't any moose. the only wild animal i've seen (when i was in new york) were squirrels and a raccoon. maybe i should go to the zoo, heehee.. i love animals ^_^
@Torunn (8607)
• Norway
7 Sep 10
I saw lots of squirrels when I was in Washington. I also went to the zoo there, so I saw tigers and elephants too :-)
@barelal (111)
• India
7 Sep 10
there are plenty of moose around my town, but they are wandering in open fields. not seen anyone inside my town.