The Colorado Parks and Wildlife Department shared a video on Twitter yesterday that showed an unidentified woman approaching a moose on the side of the road. She was captured on video attempting to pet the animal. According to the official tweet from the CPW, she was later cited for harassing a wild animal, reports ABC News .
“LEAVE WILDLIFE WILD. DO NOT FEED OR PET,” the Parks and Wildlife account said in their tweet.
They cited Anna Stonehouse as the filmmaker. During the 20-second clip, she can be heard calling the woman an idiot as she approaches the moose repeatedly. The animal was seen walking near a snow-covered crosswalk when the woman approached it as if trying to stroke its fur. Eventually, the moose became agitated and rose up on its hind legs as if to strike the woman. Multiple people were heard yelling at her to “get away,” from the angered mammal. Shortly after, she was shown walking away.
Luckily for the woman, she didn’t appear to be injured. However, the official Colorado Parks and Wildlife Twitter chose to use the incident as a teachable moment to warn others from trying to do something similar.
According to ABC News , “moose are very protective of their territory and their young.” Like most animals, they are known to become aggressive if they feel like their territory is being threatened in any capacity.
One reason people often feel comfortable enough to approach moose is that they tend to be more tolerant than some other wild animals. They don’t have many predators in the wild and are generally quite docile. That said, they are still wild animals and their behavior toward people is unpredictable.
Hundreds of Twitter users commented on the tweet from the official CPW account. The majority of responses were about how foolish the woman acted and commenters hoped that the woman had to pay a very steep fine. The ABC News article said that the video earned more than 30,000 views since it went live.
“Good grief, it’s a wild Moose not a horse – the person was lucky the reaction from the Moose wasn’t more severe,” wrote one person.
“That person is lucky the moose only gave them a ‘warning!’” added another user.
The Inquisitr previously reported a different incident in which human contact with a moose resulted in its death. A group of onlookers approached a skittish moose to take photos of it and as a result, the animal retreated into Lake Champlain out of fear. Sadly, it drowned shortly after.
