Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2003 12:23:32 -0400 From: Dexter J <lamealameadingdongnopsamlamelame.org> Subject: Re: Incidental livestock
Salutations: Well - moose (at least those here in eastern Canada) are not anything like deer - they stand about 8 feet at the shoulder and go up from there to the antlers to sometimes as high as 11 feet.. They weight in around 1,800 - 2,000 pounds and largely travel in prides of two or three.. Female moose are somewhat smaller - but think good sized Clydesdale with long legs and you have the idea.. The problem with hitting a moose is that you tend to hit it about midpoint between the hoof and knee (assuming it doesn't turn and drop it's head at you) and what mostly happens is that it comes across the hood and joins you and yours in the passenger compartment.. Often not so much dead - as really ticked off - so that it flails around in the passenger compartment before it extracts itself and hobbles off.. I've spent several years running between Halifax and Toronto/Montreal through northern New Brunswick (Plaster Rock/Renous highway - serious moose country) and have only seen one pride and then during the day and a long way down the road - they made no effort at all to get out of the way as slowed down and came upon them and the kids got an eyeful. However, I doubt anything short of an 18 wheeler with heavy iron bush bars (which almost all the lumber trucks around here use) would survive the encounter.. As we passed them I could not see above his chest from the drivers window.. I would doubt even a SAAB would be of much help in a moose/Car encounter and as such - when I see the moose warning sign - I slow it down and sometimes sound a horn going around corners in the woods.. You would stand a better chance of breaking it's leg than with some BMW. Indeed - a lot of times folks come across a car that has been trashed and the occupants killed - but the moose was apparently fine and wandered off for some swamp grass shortly after the accident (moose are water dwelling herbivores).. Newfoundland is supposed to have the biggest animals and largest populations - but I've never been there.. -- J Dexter - webmaster - http://www.dexterdyne.org/ all tunes - no cookies no subscription no weather no ads no news no phone in - all the time Radio Free Dexterdyne Top Tune o'be-do-da-day Brian Setzer Orchestra - Jump Jive Wail http://www.dexterdyne.org/888/019.RAM Andrew Stephenson wrote: > > ISTR Saab making a big thing of how moose bounce harmlessly off > their cars and how this is Good, especially for personal injury > and life expectancy. This weekend a BBC-tv programme discussed > the damage which deer do to cars in the UK (an amazing amount). > This made me wonder how often Saabs have saved occupants in the > parts of the world not infested by moose. Their North American > cousin, the elk, looks well constructed to do in a speeding car > and I can only guess at what sort of a mess a rhino or elephant > might make. Even cows, horses and camels could be a problem. > -- > Andrew Stephenson
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