Reader's Digest New Zealand - August/September 2025

JIM GERAGHTY/THE WASHINGTON POST (2) 1,000 pounds—and eventually had to hide in a neighbor’s greenhouse. Believe it or not, the fish and game department warns that more people in the state are injured by moose than by bears each year. In Alaska, moose out- number bears 3 to 1, and they injure between five and 10 people annually, mostly in vehicle accidents. That’s more than grizzly bear and black bear attacks combined; thankfully, most people have the good sense to keep away from bears. they snatch hot dogs off under- supervised backyard grills. My wife and two teenagers are itch- ing to get out and experience stretches of Denali on foot, so we get off the bus. We’re about two-thirds of the way up the Mount Healy Overlook Trail when my younger teenager announces he needs to relieve himself. I figure I’d better not let him get out of sight—not a matter of precognition so much as thinking it’s best to keep an eye on anyone who goes off a trail in the wild. The ground is soft and spongy because of the permafrost, absorbing the sound of footsteps. And then, a few moments after my son begins his business, I see it, about 40 feet away and moseying in our direction: a moose. Or, as some people apparently call it, a murder horse. It has no antlers, so it looks like the Black Stallion on a rigorous steroid regimen. We are no more than 20 feet off the trail, have been off it for barely a min- ute and, despite the long odds, have just run into wildlife that absolutely dwarfs me, and I’m 6-foot-2. I can’t tell whether this is a female moose (I guess the absence of antlers means it is), and thus more likely to be danger- ous at this time of year. It doesn’t seem agitated or angry, but I’m not a moose psychologist. Now, before our guide’s moose- awareness talk, I would have been more fascinated than worried, and probably cracking Bullwinkle jokes. But now I knowmy family and I are having IT DOESN’T SEEM AGITATED OR ANGRY, BUT I’M NOT A MOOSE PSYCHOLOGIST. On the bus tour, we technically see Dall sheep and a golden eagle. I say “technically” because to the naked eye, they’re specks in the far distance, although our guide has a video camera with an impressive magnifying lens. We also see a fox, but big deal—in our neighborhood in Fairfax County, Vir- ginia, foxes are so commonplace that 112 reader ’ s digest Nature AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2025