It’s never smart to turn your back on a wild animal.
That’s because you can’t ever know for sure how they are going to act. The only real guarantee that you have when you encounter a wild animal is the fact that you have no idea how things are going to go down. Because of that, there are plenty of rules and guidelines to help humans who find themselves in sticky situations like this one.
First off, if you can stay away from the wildlife, that’s the best way to stay safe. The National Park Service recommends that tourists stay at least 25 yards away from animals that are considered non-violent, like elk and moose. For bears, wolves, and other predatory animals, the NPS suggests (and emphasizes) that people should stay at least 100 yards away.
Secondly, if you do find yourself in a close encounter with a wild animal, backing away slowly and making sure not to run is the best way to retreat. Running away could result in an animal’s chasing instinct to kick in, so that’s why the photographer in this video was trying to stay calm and refrain from making a run for it.
Though the man was handling the situation as best as he could (though we don’t know how he got himself into this in the first place), it didn’t stop this curious bull moose from bluff charging him a couple of times. The only mistake the guy made was turning his back to the young moose from time to time, and that could have ended poorly if the moose had decided to go for a full-on charge. I mean, he’s got quite the lens on his camera, does he really need to be that close? I don’t think so, but I’m not a photographer.
Eventually the photographer gets out of the pickle he got himself into, as you’ll see in the footage below:
That’s a close call right there.
Everything ended up okay for this photographer, but those on social media that watched the video seemingly wish that the moose would have been able to teach the guy a little bit of a lesson:
“Has a three foot lens and needs to be two inches from it. More money than brains.”
“Good thing it wasn’t a female with a calf.”
“People always look surprised when wildlife acts like wildlife.”
“I was hoping he’d end up in the river with that fancy camera.”
“Why do these people do this? Please tell me.”
A question that we would all love to know the answer to…
