What do you do when you encounter a young animal?

I’ve seen several articles already this year addressing what to do if you encounter a baby animal, like a moose calf, in your outdoor wanderings. Mama is usually around somewhere and you could be in serious jeopardy if you do anything other than observe the babies from a distance.

While we haven’t had any baby moose visit our yard so far this year, we regularly see moose year around. Tracks are a common sight around the storage building and a couple of years ago I even found a nice shed antler in the back yard. We have had visits by baby moose on two different occasions in the recent past.

One Memorial Day weekend, I let our dachshunds out on the deck for their evening potty trip. The littlest one ran over to the handrail on the side facing the backyard and started barking and wailing like you wouldn’t believe. The others immediately joined in. I looked but couldn’t see anything. The woodshed blocked any clear view of the area.

I went back in the house and figured when the dogs settled down, we’d make the potty trip. As I walked by my wife’s study, I glanced out the window and noticed a really large moose behind the shed eating grass and leaves. That’s what had gotten the dogs’ attention. As I watched a little longer, I saw two little brown moose babies running and frolicking while Mama ate dinner.

I called my wife and we watched the three moose for probably twenty minutes as Mama continued to dine and the babies just played and romped. I brought the dogs in to quiet things down. Mama had been looking in the dogs’ direction but didn’t appear concerned. She occasionally glanced in the babies’ direction, but the two little ones never wandered further than about 75 feet from her location.

The little moose were a light brown color, in contrast to Mama’s much darker, almost black appearing hair. One of the babies tried once to nurse, but either Mama wasn’t cooperative or the urge to play overrode any hunger pangs. The little one was back romping with its sibling after only a quick try for dinner.

We noticed the little babies stopping occasionally and watching Mama. They started eating some of the leaves off the lower branches they could reach, just as they had seen Mama do. They would stop and nibble on some of the new grass as well. Mostly, they just romped and chased and played. Every once in a while one of the little ones would make a run toward the house. However, that big adventure was always sidetracked by the urge to stop, sniff, and lick the aluminum siding on an old truck camper situated near the woodshed.

We enjoyed watching their antics and how agile they were. The thing that impressed me the most was the length of their legs. Mama was probably almost seven feet tall, so the long legs came naturally.

Mama looked like an older animal and had a couple of big scars on her sides and back. She obviously was not a newcomer to parenthood and had apparently had her share of encounters with other critters capable of leaving large scars. That’s probably why she was in our backyard.

Our little dogs hardly posed a threat to her babies. The largest wild canines in the area are foxes and the only bear I’ve ever seen in the yard is the 3-D archery target I practice with. She and her young were safe if they could avoid the traffic. We, on the other hand, had to make sure we never come between Mama and her babies.

On another Memorial Day weekend, I was loading the RV for a hooligan dipnetting trip when, as I walked out of the garage with a load of gear, I noticed an obviously just born moose calf on the lawn around the side of the house maybe 20 feet from me. As I watched the little calf stagger to maintain balance, I looked up to see Mama with her ears laid back and coming for me from the woods off the edge of the yard.

I quickly stepped back into the garage and Mama lost sight of me. With the danger averted, Mama settled down but stayed within a few feet of the calf until they finally decided to wander off into the woods. The RV trip was postponed until I could safely finish loading the gear!

Howard Delo is a retired fisheries biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. This column is the opinion of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman or its parent company, Wick Communications. You can leave Delo a message by emailing sports@frontiersman.com.