Moose Everywhere

Most major cities around the world, regardless of where they are, seem to have excessive amounts of pigeons and rats. I have found in the past week that this is not the case with Anchorage. Their problem seems to be moose. Every time I turn around, there is another moose, just chilling there, munching on some branches. I had heard before arriving here that there were a lot of moose here, but I never imagined it would be like this. When I visited Newfoundland several years ago, they mentioned a number of times that that island was full of moose, yet I never saw one there. There were a lot, I'm sure of that, I guess I just looked in all the wrong places.

My first day, maybe two, but I think that is a stretch, I did not see any moose. I figured it would be like Newfoundland, and I would really have to be on the lookout, and just look at the right places. I was wrong. My second day here, we discovered a moose in our backyard. That was interesting. Every day since then, I have seen at least a couple moose. Last night, while I was on the phone with Rachelle, I was walking outside, in the midnight sun, and just about walked into a moose. Now, you may ask how that is possible, as they are not exactly small animals. In fact, the small ones are bigger than me. Well, they tend to spend most of their time in the brush, chewing on twigs and branches. Right near our apartment, there is a little grove of trees, which is full or brush and twigs, and I am certain a few moose live in there. Well, I did not make that connection until last night. I was walking around, paying little attention to what was going on around me, seeing I was a little more focused on the person on the other end of the phone. As I rounded the corner again, the thought popped into my head that there were probably moose that live in that grove. About the same time as I had that thought, I realized that there was a moose standing in front of me, and looking at me, about five to seven feet away. That startled me. I don't think the moose cared very much. She watched me jump and walk away, and then she just went back to eating her branches.

The moose in this place are everywhere. Just today, I saw a few more. Most of them just wander around the city, looking for food. The bulls are just beginning to grow their antlers. Most of the moose we run into, some of us literally, are quite accustomed to people being around, so they just look at us and then go back to whatever they were doing to begin with. They can be found anywhere there are any trees, however many or few trees there are in the area. They can be found at any time of the day, but to see them in the trees, you sort of have to look for them. They are huge, but they are brown, and usually surrounded by brown trees. If you know what they look like though, they are not usually that difficult to spot. For those that are wondering, some moose are so accustomed to people that they will eat out of your hand, however the Municipality of Anchorage has a $5,000 fine for people who try that, and they will kill the moose, to prevent any diseases from potentially spreading to the rest of the moose community.