Protective moose stomps on Colorado man walking his dogs. ‘Doing her job as a mom’
A Colorado man says he was lucky to survive a chance encounter with a protective mother moose while walking his dogs.
Rob Standerwick, 58, of Coal Creek, told KDVR he and his dogs, Phantom and Magic, inadvertently surprised the moose and its baby after coming around a bend in the trail.
“I heard a couple of branches break and looked up and saw this cow, female moose, and she was already at full speed running right at me,” he told the station. “I didn’t have a chance to even turn to run or get behind a bigger tree.”
The moose knocked Standerwick down and trampled him on the morning of Monday, June 19, Colorado Parks and Wildlife said in a news release.
Standerwick pulled out a pistol and fired twice into the ground, scaring off the moose without harming it, the agency said. The noise alerted his neighbors, who came to help.
“He had a hoof print on his chest,” neighbor Collin Howe told KDVR. Standerwick suffered torn muscles and broken fingers, but he doesn’t blame the moose.
“She was doing her job as a mom.” he told the station, noting he’d seen the moose in the past and managed to avoid it.
Parks officials searched the canyon but did not find the moose or its baby, the agency said.
Coal Creek is a community in Boulder County about 20 miles northwest of Denver.
What to know about moose
Moose are protective animals and will defend their territory and their young.
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.
Wildlife officials said people should do the following if a moose charges:
Run away quickly
Put a tree, rock or other large object between them and the moose
Get up quickly if knocked down
Report the incident to wildlife officials as soon as possible
This story was originally published June 20, 2023 at 10:44 AM with the headline "Protective moose stomps on Colorado man walking his dogs. ‘Doing her job as a mom’."