Triplets

A wild moment that I will never forget.

I was shooting the sunrise on Mount McKinley at 4 am at the Eielson Visitor Center. I heard a clicking sound behind me. I turned to look at the source of the sound and I could not believe my eyes. It was a mother moose and 3 calves. Sixteen hooves clicking across the parking lot about 150 feet away. The calves were about a week old. It is rare that a cow moose will have three calves that can survive for even a week. Usually one or two survive. Three is an exception. I started photographing and watched as mother moose led here troop across the park road, up an embankment, keeping her distance from me at all times. Then back down to the road, They stopped, looked at me long enough for me to start the video rolling, then they started to walk down the road.

I needed my 500mm lens for a closer shot. I started waving both hands at my wife in the car about 100 feet away. I was trying to get her attention and at same time not frighten the moose. No luck – she was asleep! I grabbed my gear and ran to the car, jumped in and we drove onto the road in the direction the moose had walked. But too late, they had left the road and descended down the embankment. We pulled up to the edge and I started shooting as the four of them melted into the bushes, never to be seen again by this photographer (we went back many times to this very spot over the next 5 days hoping to see them again).

I did get one memorable image of the four of them looking back at me as if to say goodbye, just before being enveloped by the safety of their environment.

A wild moment that I will never forget.

Be sure to view the video above

Safe Into The Bush

~ by richardseeley on August 30, 2013.