Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Wednesday, December 2. 2009

Big Moose

Caption and photo came in over the transom - might be photoshopped but we don't know -


By the length of his beard and the gray legs this bull moose must be over 10 years old. He appears to be over 8 feet at the shoulder hump … this fellow is ONE BIG BOY!  The picture was taken near Elliott Lake, Ontario, Canada on a dirt road, probably the width of 1.5 cars.


Posted by Bird Dog in Natural History and Conservation at 05:36 | Comments (22) | Trackbacks (0)

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Wow - I've never seen one that big - what a trophy that would make.

I've seen hoof prints of big moose - in particular in the UP of Michigan around Trout Creek during salmon season but nothing the size of those.

Amazing. Gotta go a ton or so wouldn't you think?
#1 Tom Francis on 2009-12-02 06:22 (Reply)
Alas, it seems to be less than trustworthy. This blogpost comment-thread gives a couple of reasons to doubt the photo's authenticity, and also a reason to think it isn't as big as claimed.

Being familiar with the tricks that light and chance can play in wildlife photography, my guess is that the photo is genuine, but it was not taken under the circumstances claimed, and the moose is not as big as claimed.
#2 wolfwalker on 2009-12-02 08:17 (Reply)
Agreed. Something's not quite right with this shot (proportionality seems off). We do grow them big, up here, however.

Saw one, once, really up close, when I was planting trees north of Chapleau, Ontario. As a young buck (me), it was a first encounter. And one that stayed with me.
#2.1 Garry on 2009-12-02 08:34 (Reply)
I'm not that sure Doc. I know a little about perspective, angles and such and I wouldn't want to state with any sort of authority that its a faked image ala the "Hogzilla" hoax. There is a sort of depth to the image that gives it an authentic look.

8 feet at the hump isn't totally out of the question - according to my big game records book the largest confirmed no-doubt-about-it trophy moose was 7' 8" Alaskan moose that came in at 1,800 lbs.

On the other hand, exploding the image out to 700% there are two areas that are suspicious - the left rear leg looks to be cut much to sharp and the hoof disappears into what looks like an area that was clone stamped to obscure details. Also, around the nose, there is an area that also might have been clone stamped and some suspicious areas around the beard that have a uniform look and weren't blended properly.


However, I'm not going to state categorically that it's a fake image because (1) it does fit its surroundings, the track looks like a forestry service path you see in managed forests and it's the kind of terrority where you see moose (2) I've been accused of 'Shopping an image by an actual expert who only retracted his critique when I produced the original image with intact EXIF data and history (sometimes the data can be stripped by display software) (3) Dammit - I WANT TO BELIEVE!! I want to dream that the next monster tarpon, marlin, striper, moose, deer, antelope, Hogzilla is out there and waiting to be taken and/or photographed.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
#2.2 Tom Francis on 2009-12-02 10:54 (Reply)
TF,

I'll defer to your stated knowledge (and your dreams!..we all have those).

My thoughts are:

1/ The photog would have been 'camped' there to capture the shot (any noise & the moose wouldn't have been seen as it would have diverted)

2/ If #1 isn't valid, then he would have been downwind. Otherwise the shot would have been of moose eyes and a little blurry!

The setting is real (I've seen many such forestry/old logging paths now used for fire fighting access, etc) but the moose doesn't fit (size wise)...at least to this glass eye.

Cheers.
#2.2.1 Garry on 2009-12-02 12:24 (Reply)
Im a 70 year old Canadian guy that hunted all my life and I have shoot my fair share of game moose included. I was a cat skinner in the foothills of Alberta and in the NWT & the Yukon. I also hauled logs out of logging operations in Ontario Alberta & BC. I have seen substantially more moose that most people.

I have seen many large moose through those experiences but nothing to match those pics. My opinion is the pic is real but fit onto a location different than where taken. Looking at each the proportions are right but the moose is way out of proportion to those pics in my opinion.
#2.2.2 Bob Devine on 2009-12-02 17:27 (Reply)
Bob Devine,

I agree 100% (2nd paragraph).
(Off topic...ever heard of the Croft Lumber Company, Magnetawan, Ontario?).

The Canuck
#2.2.2.1 Garry on 2009-12-02 20:46 (Reply)
Garry:
Afraid not. Hauled pulp wood for Abitibi around the Lakehead and logs for Jacobson Lumber in Port Arthur as a young guy then move west in 1960.
#2.2.2.1.1 Bob Devine on 2009-12-03 14:31 (Reply)
Would hate to hit one with my car. I have hit two deer and one deer has hit me. A moose looks to be much worse, collision wise.
#3 feeblemind on 2009-12-02 09:38 (Reply)
True story. My youngest boy Chris and I (me? I can never get that straight) were returning from an outing when he was a Cub Scout. We were at the top of a local road that runs up a ridge line from North Woodstock to Putnam when all of a sudden, literally out of nowhere, this ten point buck jumped the hedgerow, hit the side of the F-250 and stuck his head into the window of the truck - right in Chris's face!

Fortunately for Chris, the deer's neck broke and he must have died instantly because we dragged him for about 50 feet or so until I could get stopped and get Chris out of the truck. He was scared and a little shaky but fine none-the-less.

I called the State Police and did a quick field dress on the carcass. I'm not much for venison (neither is anybody else in my family) so I gave it to the cop who I knew pretty well and kept the rack.
#3.1 Tom Francis on 2009-12-02 11:03 (Reply)
My experience was similar, Tom. I was headed down the highway, and a big doe came over a bank going full tilt (it was deer season and she was probably being hunted). Her head came right through the door window on the driver's side of the pickup. Her ear hit me on the side of the face. Then her body slammed into the box of the pickup and caved it in. $2000 damage. I left the carcass figuring it was too badly bruised to be of any value. What really surprised me was that by the very next day, only the head and the spine was left. The rest had been eaten. I have never seen a deer carcass disappear so quickly, before or since.
#3.1.1 feeblemind on 2009-12-03 10:12 (Reply)
Wow, now I have got a bit better idea of what living among the mega-fauna of the Pleistocene must have been like. What an animal. You almost expect a mastodon to follow him out of the woods.
#4 brierrabbit3030 on 2009-12-02 11:22 (Reply)
Tom ... Great story -- you are a good mensch, and a good Dad, I can see that. As for the I/me controversy, take the word of an old copy editor who wrote words for money all of her working life, if you diagram the sentence -- in other words, take it apart into subject/verb/predicate, and remove Chris from the subject, you'll see that I is the correct subject. You wouldn't say "me was returning from a trip," obviously.

You young folks got cheated when English teachers stopped teaching language skills and techniques in 'grammar' schools. Sentence 'diagramming' is one of the great aids to writing clearly. But then, many so-called English teachers don't know how to write English themselves.

Marianne
#5 Marianne Matthews on 2009-12-02 11:30 (Reply)
LOL!! I hear you. My lovely bride of 35 years is a Middle School (8th grade) English teacher (40 years this year in fact) and she's correcting me all the time. She believes as you do by the way - it would seem that folks of a "certain" age have a more practical approach to teaching English.

Unfortunately for me, I'm English challenged as science and math was easy for me but English was just plain illogical and totally foreign to the way I think. In fact, it wasn't until about five years ago, I finally managed to figure out which to/too/two to use in sentences. :>)
#5.1 Tom Francis on 2009-12-02 12:14 (Reply)
I wonder what Meta would have to say.
#5.2 Luther on 2009-12-02 12:16 (Reply)
It's not a beard it's a bell and you cannot tell the age by the length of the bell. They have been known to freeze off.
#6 Capt. Craig on 2009-12-02 12:17 (Reply)
Made me think of the Pleistocene too.
#7 Bird Dog on 2009-12-02 12:30 (Reply)
Mythbusters did an interesting article about colliding with moose, based on a rubber "moose-analog". Their conclusion: there are only bad ways to hit a moose, but faster is worse.
#8 Geoff on 2009-12-02 12:38 (Reply)
Geez, can you imagine what would happen if they crossed that moose with a Jackalope?
#9 rg on 2009-12-02 15:14 (Reply)
That is the best comment in the string! Right on. LOL.
#9.1 Bob Devine on 2009-12-02 17:34 (Reply)
OK, I'll be the first to say it.

A Møøse once bit my sister ...
#10 Jim on 2009-12-02 17:47 (Reply)
Jim,

OK I'll bite:

A female moose walked into a bar and said: "............
#10.1 Garry on 2009-12-02 20:48 (Reply)
It's a famous Monty Python line (from Monty Python and the Holy Grail).
#10.1.1 Jim on 2009-12-05 16:07 (Reply)

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