A family says they were “humbled” by a scary encounter with a moose while snowmobiling in eastern Idaho.
Screenshot of Jeremiah Bigelow’s YouTube video
A family says they were “humbled” by a frightening encounter with a moose while snowmobiling in eastern Idaho.
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They caught the learning experience on video and shared it on social media March 3. One family member described what happened in the caption, starting with the way the whole family was humbled by the encounter.
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“So… we were humbled by this,” Jeremiah Bigelow wrote in the YouTube video caption. Bigelow said the group was riding through the snow and his brother got ahead of Bigelow, Bigelow’s son and two friends.
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“A moose came into the trail and got in between us,” he said. “We stopped. Moments before I started filming the moose charged us but stopped 20’ short. That scared me. Moose are huge,” he said.
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Bigelow had put his snowmachine in reverse but couldn’t back up because one member of the group had pulled up right behind him on an older sled that didn’t have reversing capabilities, he said.
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His brother noticed what was happening, stood up on his snowmachine facing the moose and threw his hands up to distract it and draw it away from where the rest of the group was stuck near the moose, the video shows.
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“Well… he did,” Bigelow said. “It looked like the moose was going to step off the trail and go into the woods but it changed its mind and did a sudden charge.”
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His brother twisted around back onto the snowmobile and throttled the engine — but it died, Bigelow said.
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The video shows his brother look back toward the charging moose and launch himself from the machine just before the moose hits it and topples over it into the snow.
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“Had my brother not jumped when he did, he would have been crushed between the full weight of the moose and the handle bars,” Bigelow said.
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Fearing the moose might charge again, Bigelow says he raced ahead, which ultimately seemed to discourage the moose. The animal “decided it was done and walked away,” he said.
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“Lesson learned… brother should have continued further down and we should have turned around after the false charge and gave it more space,” he said. “Bad scenario with an okay outcome. Moose was unharmed and I saw it later walking unharmed. Scary….”
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Bigelow told KSL the group was stunned by the encounter.
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“The moose was trapped. We were trapped,” he told the station.
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Later, they realized the severity of the situation.
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“It could have killed him,” Bigelow told the station. “I mean, the amount of weight that came down on those handlebars, it pushed the handlebars all the way forward. So, it would have been pretty catastrophic.”
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Moose are protective animals and will defend their territory and their young.
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If someone encounters a moose, they should give it space to leave, wildlife officials said. People shouldn’t try to haze a moose to move out of the way.
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Wildlife officials said people should do the following if a moose charges:
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Run away quickly
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Put a tree, rock or other large object between them and the moose
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Get up quickly if knocked down
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Report the incident to wildlife officials as soon as possible
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