A long-time community resident, who has asked to remain anonymous (we’ll call him Harry) was downtown on Thursday morning (March 22) when he nearly collided with a moose who was in the area of the Vanderhoof post office.
“I didn’t see him at first, and it almost ran into me,” laughed Harry.
“I was walking from the insurance place to the post office and suddenly it was just there.”
Although it isn’t all that unusual for moose to make their way into town, this is the first time that Harry has come into this sort of close contact with the large animals.
“You see them in town occasionally, usually down by the bridge, but not this close. I had enough time to take a couple of pictures, but then it disappeared back around the Post Office.”
Harry went on to explain that, in his experience, moose aren’t particularly dangerous unless they are spooked, at which point their behaviour can become unpredictable.
B.C. Conservation officials have cautioned that people should never try to feed the great animals and that, if one should wander into an area where you happen to be, avoidance is the best policy.
The average full grown moose is between 2.5 and 3.5 m long and can weigh in at more than 400 kg.
In 2013, a hungry, tick infested moose wandered into a Safeway grocery store in Smithers and had to be removed by conservation officers.
