Yes, moose are more aggressive this year: Here’s why

Dog tramplings, chargings on local trails and streets and even a bull near Fairbanks that seemed impervious to bullets — those are just a few examples of dangerous encounters of the moose kind faced recently by Alaskans around the state. Are the moose just as ready for this winter to be over as the humans are or is something else going on?

If the moose seem angrier than years past this late winter and early spring, it’s really not just your imagination, confirmed biologists and officials with the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife. The same ice events that shut down most MatSu schools for several days and have turned Valley roads into ice rinks with car-sized pot holes have also made it extra tough for animals who need to travel looking for food.

The result? Very grumpy moose.

“This year with the icing events and significant crusty conditions across the valley as well as high snow-levels on the western and northern portions of the valley — Big Lake, Willow, Talkeetna — there has been an increase in the number of aggressive moose reports in these areas,” Todd Rinaldi, a regional management coordinator for Fish and Game said in an email. “Moose will often stand their ground in these situations so hazing and trying to change the moose’s behavior is often unsuccessful and can lead to more aggression by the moose.”

Among those “aggressive moose” reports are people being charged in their driveways or on trails or mushing events diverting courses or altering plans around testy moose activity. And the problem has been especially noticeable in the interior where heavier than normal snowfall has pushed moose onto developed trails and into the path of users.

The result of those encounters can be catastrophic, as rookie Iditarod musher Bridgett Watkins experienced in early February. Her team met an aggressive, charging bull moose on a trail near Fairbanks during a training run. After emptying her handgun into him did nothing, she watched helplessly for 40 minutes as he repeatedly trampled her team before assistance — and a shotgun — could arrive. While several dogs were seriously injured, all of them survived and Watkins was at the Iditarod start line as planned despite the attack. At the time of this writing she is still on the Iditarod course and stands in 36th place.

Moose are always a little more on edge than usual in early spring thanks to a supply of easy to digest food paired with late-winter depleted fat stores on their bodies, biologists note. But this year is a little bit worse.

“Deep snows can exacerbate this because moose do not want to expend the energy to get off trails and push through the snow,” Mike Taras, a state biologist who focuses on the Interior said in an email.

In short, said Rinaldi, they’re “hangry.”

“This is the time of year when moose are most nutritionally stressed, often leading to grumpy, hangry moose-people encounters in developed areas,” he said.

Humans aren’t always very nice when they’re hungry, either. But humans don’t weigh about 1,000 lbs or run up to 35 mph. That’s why the thing to do is give moose plenty of space, Rinaldi said.

“The best course of action is for the residents to temporarily alter their behaviors over the short-term giving the moose distance and time to move on — there is likely a food source nearby,” he said. “Turning lights on outside when it is dark and scanning yards for moose is a simple safety measure before letting kids and pets outdoors.”

And if you encounter an especially angry moose that is causing a safety issue or won’t leave you and your home or pets alone? Contact the state’s wildlife troopers, he said. Those based in Palmer can be contacted at (907) 745-4247 while residents in the western part of the Borough should contact (907) 373-8305.