Hitting a Moose

Alaskan moose stand about 7 feet tall at the shoulder when mature, alot of that is just long legs, but a complete bull moose can easily be 3/4 ton.

most collisions with cars end up clipping the legs out under it and the moose goes straight through the windshield at whatever speed you were moving.

for those reasons and others large trucks are the rule, and cars are a risk.

moose here are mostly crepuscular, active during dawn and dusk, and chillin in between. they are very hard to spot except for eyes reflecting light [catlike]

Its common to have high intensity long throw LED lights[i call'em moose blasters] mounted on your rig so you have a chance to see them, and have time to react.

there is a list here of experiences that you must compleate, to be considered, a seasoned skookum alaskan, moose collision is one of them.

Modern cars are much better with moose crashes. A couple of years ago I was in driving back from grocery store, just south of Sodankylä in northern Finland, during the darkest times of winter, when the car in front of me crashed into a moose. The moose bounced multiple meters into the air from the windshield of the car in front of me, and I needed to do the typical evasive maneuver (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moose_test) to avoid the flying moose. I'd estimate that the crash happened with speed of around 40-50 km/h.

The person driving the car in front of me survived unscathed, without any injury. The car (2010's VW Passat) very likely was a loss though. This just tells how good modern cars are with these kinds of crashes.

In Finland there are about 1000-2000 moose crashes every year, but only around 1-4 people die from them.

Growing up in rural New England, every now and then we'd have some moose wandering through. One jumped over my dads car, leaving a pretty significant dent. Moose walked away unphased.

The thing to know about moose: they don't give a fuck. they're a goddamn moose, and they'll go where they please and be there for as long as they like. The fuck you gonna do about it?

And when you're stopped in the middle of the road waiting for the moose to deign to let you by, you just keep reminding yourself of that little fact, and remember how to be patient.

It's definitely no joke! When I hiked half the Appalachian Trail and eventually made it to Maine, a shuttle driver that came out to pick us up from a nearby hostel talked about how he'd lost several friends to car accidents due to moose collisions. He was intensely interested in arriving back at the hostel before dark.

He also had some sort of decoration made out of moose scat decoration hanging from the rearview mirror and was also trying to convince us passengers of the many uses of moose scats - skin remedies, even ingestion. But that's another story!

"What Happens When You Actually Hit a Moose? Volvo Has a Moose-Strike Test for That." (2018)

https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a22604428/what-happens...

I live in the only Canadian province that doesn't have moose, or bears, or deer, or any large animals other farm animals. Even skunks were imported (and escaped) as a cheaper replacement for fox fur. We don't have the experience of being aware of large animals on rural roads. Most times it is known if a cow or a horse is on the loose.

When I travel to neighbouring provinces I am nervous driving on the highway. Especially in the fall when it starts to get dark early or the sun is low on the horizon longer. I've seen moose on the side of the road with their dark brown velvety fur. Females and juveniles are the worst since no antlers makes for a stealthy profile, males still have antlers until mid-winter.

It's such perfect camouflage even when lit by car headlights. Car headlights are made to look forward not to the side. Often a moose just appears out of nowhere the few times I have been lucky to miss one the few times I am on the road in areas with moose.

Let's just say I'm glad we don't have to worry about such things here.

“The winch was rated to handle the moose’s weight—roughly 1,500 pounds”

Permit me on this wonderful Saturday morning to be tangentially pedantic.

I imagine the true “weight” of dragging a moose across the ground is a lot more than 1500lbs by probably many multiples?

People don't realize how truly massive moose are. They are literal alien monsters that tower over. First time I saw one I was shocked. They just step over fences like they aren't even there.

a guy won an Ignobel prize this year for his moose crash test dummy paper https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A673... . one of his suggestions if you're suddenly about to hit a moose, steer towards the rear. since the moose will move forward you have a better chance if you veer your car towards its rear end.

I knew a guy who hunted moose up in Canada.

To give you a sense of their size, if you field prep one (remove the innards, cut off the limbs), each quarter of the animal weighs over 200 lbs. You either hunt with 3 other people who can haul out a 200 lb quarter or you bring an ATV with a trailer.

They are massive animals.

Deer cause enough damage, and they're tiny compared to a moose.

I'd much rather be bit by a møøse than hit a møøse.

I was enjoying the beginning of this article so I wanted to save it as a PDF for review later when I would be off-grid BUT NOEP CANNOT so goodbye