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By Rudy Nielsen |
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In the 45 years I have spent hiking and camping
in the great outdoors, I have encountered many
animals of various species. My father was a
trapper in the early thirties and he taught me
at an early age what to watch out for at
different times of the year regarding the
feeding habits and moods of animals in the
wilds. So over the years I have developed a
sixth sense as to when and what animal I'll meet
and which animal wants to have its picture taken
and which one wants to be left alone. As a
result I have assembled a wonderful library of
wildlife photos taken over the last 20 years.
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In the spring of this year my ranch foreman,
Chris, and I were inspecting a 400 acres parcel
of property we are developing north of
Mackenzie. It is a beautiful property, on a
bench with an incredible view of the snowcapped
mountains, and with a good sized
clear, snow-fed creek |
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running through it. We had already seen a couple
of moose that morning, when a few hundred yards
to the north of us I saw a magnificent cow moose
with two very young, healthy calves. |
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Rudy's moose with her calves
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I had to take some pictures of this area for
the surveyors who were laying out a
subdivision plan, so Chris headed back to
the truck and I headed for the bench to get
some photos. Still at a distance I stopped
and watched her. She had no problem with me
and kept eating some willow, but watching me
all the time. I then brought my Nikon up and
pushed my automatic focus to take her
picture. When the motor started focusing the
camera, she immediately put her ears back
and the hair stood up on the back of her
neck. I took the picture, then just stood
there, not moving. Her ears came up and her
hair came back down. I looked at my Nikon
and tried to figure out how to set it from
automatic to manual so the motor wouldn't
"whirr". While I was doing this, the moose
just kept eating her willow diet, not the
least bit concerned about me. After many
frustrating minutes I knew I wouldn't figure
out how to turn off my automatic focus without the instructions,
and they were at home. Still I was determined to
get another picture; I thought she might now let
me do this. I was wrong. The minute she heard
that motor, back went her ears and up came the
hair.
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Rudy's moose becoming
irritated |
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But this time she was really angry and
came at me full charge. I quickly took
one more photo and ran! Most times when
I am confronted by a bear or moose I
stand my ground hen step backwards
slowly, one step at a time until I'm
clear. But in this case I had no time. I
figured if I ran fast enough she would
stop the charge. Wrong again. She was
gaining quickly. My first thought was to
try and make it to the truck and get in.
I was running and yelling for Chris to
open the truck door but he couldn't hear
me because he had the motor running and
was checking something else. I soon
realized even if he could hear me and
got the door open, I still couldn't make
it in time. I was in a logged area and
saw one small poplar tree, for which I
headed, intending to climb it as fast as
possible. That was probably the fastest
1000 yard dash I had done since the 60's
when I ran the "440" for the Vancouver
Olympic Club. |
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Irritated moose charging
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Halfway to this tree I realized that I
wasn't going to make it, so I had to find a
second escape route…..fast. Just up ahead I
saw some windfall with a small clump of
spruce trees. I dropped my camera, covered
my head and face with my arms and dived
head-first into the middle, just as she
reached me. I hit a log with my shoulder,
but I landed safely in the middle of the
thick brush. I slowly sat up, looked through
the dense brush and there she was, just
standing there watching me. Her ears were
up, her hair down and she was no longer mad.
She stood there less than a minute an then
trotted back to her calves.
I crawled out of my brush pile, carefully
found my camera and jogged back to the
truck. I startled Chris. "How the hell did
you get here so fast? Only a minute ago you
were on that hill over there" he said, pointing in the opposite
direction. While rubbing a very bruised
shoulder, and wiping a lot of sweat off my face,
I told him my story.
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Moral of the story: If photographing an animal
in the wild, use a good zoom lens and keep your
distance. |
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