Yeah, this is an encounter I pray I never find myself in one day.
A Red Deer, Alberta, man found himself between a rock and a hard place recently, while taking a walk in his neighborhood. Or more literally, between a tree and a moose.
According to Edmonton CTV News, David Meredith noticed a massive adult bull moose on his walk.
He decided to hide behind a tree and check out the creature, and next thing you know, the moose charged him and he saw his life flash before his eyes.
Meredith told the outlet:
“He ended up doing a bluff charge. So I took that opportunity to scream like a little girl and run up that tree. I really didn’t have anywhere to go.”
He thought the moose would eventually leave, but it kept charging back and forth and rustling tree branches with its antlers.
He continued:
“He was grunting and had every intention to trample me by the looks of things. It was quite intimidating, the photos don’t do it justice of how close it felt.”
Meredith said he was in the tree for a whole 10 to 15 minutes, before the moose finally ran off and the coast was clear once again.
He said he has lived in the neighborhood for 22 years, and as the COVID-19 pandemic rages on in Canada, he’s seen more and more animals make their way into the neighborhood:
“You see the occasional rabbit, deer. Lots of ducks. With everybody shut down and not doing anything, it seems like the animals moved into town.”
Doug Evans, a Red Deer city park planner, also told the outlet he thinks that the moose was just spooked by Meredith:
“This one is a bit unpredictable. It’s not something we normally see. If there’s something you can put between the animal and you to protect you, that’s always the first instinct.
If the animal gets more aggressive and you have to climb a tree or scale a fence, that’s what you need to do.”
Although Meredith was in a scary situation, he says the moose encounter won’t put an end to his nightly walks:
“These large game coming through the cities are wild animals, no matter what you do or talk to them or keep your distance, or whatever – they can cover a lot of ground quite quickly, as the video shows.
I think just let them be and take your photos from a distance and let them do their thing. I don’t think their intentions are to hurt us by any means. Just don’t provoke them and don’t give them a reason to feel intimidated. Live with them, I guess.”
Everybody love’s nature until it’s time to run from it… at least it wasn’t a bear.
Check it out:
