Moody moose in the neighborhood

I see moose (Alces alces) almost every day during the winter. That is, most of them I see during night, when it is dark and not so easy to see them. But some days I can see them just outside the window, like the one above, resting in the snow.

But most of the times when I see moose in broad day light, I see them hiding in the woods when I walk the dog. Because these animals are usually not moving around much during the day.

Moose, or Eurasian Elk, which maybe are the correct for the Scandinavian moose, is a big animal. Much bigger than a normal horse, and some people are afraid of them. Especially since the are walking around quite close to the houses some times. This happens most often when it is dark and most people do not see them then, but still, they are afraid.
I am not. As I said, I almost see a moose or two every day (especially at night), and only once did one of them make a charge toward me and the dog. But I understand why. We were very close, because of the dark night we did not see them before we were too close. But it was just a warning. This is wild animals, who have their body language that has to be respected. Mayself I never go straight towards these animals. And I will turn and go another way if I think I will disturb them. And contrary to some of my neighbours I do not mind if a moose walk through my garden. Because there is nothing much to eat there now. It is all covered with snow.

The moose above lives in a moose farm in Sweden that is a tourist attraction. As far as I know there are no moose farms in Norway, but there are some in zoo, like Familieparken i Nord-Trøndelag. But most of them live in the wilderness, and because the wolf got more or less extinct some hundred years ago, there is now a lot of moose in Norway. And because there is a lot of them, and even more cars, there are a lot of car accidents. Between 6000 and 7000 moose, deer and roe deer are killed by cars every year, and only in January this year about 90 moose were killed by train in Norway. So it is hard to be a wild animal sometimes.

In my web gallery you can see some more of my moose photos.