Tuesday morning was speculated to be an uneventful journey into the woods for Caleb Lewis. The 27-year-old from Maine’s northernmost Aroostook County had some sport cameras to hold and a few areas to scout, and he’s at all times looking out for sheds. Lewis and his spouse personal a shed antler canine chew firm collectively.
However issues took a flip when Lewis discovered himself in the course of rutting moose motion, with three close by bulls loudly grunting and competing over a cow. Solely when Lewis turned and realized one of many bulls was approaching him did he pull his telephone out to document the shut encounter.
That footage now lives on Lewis’ Instagram, the place it garnered 2.4 million views over only a few days.
“I acquired out of my truck and observed a bunch of moose rubs on the alders,” Lewis tells Outside Life. “It’s rut season, so in fact they’re going to be energetic.”
Lewis was headed for a swamp a couple of half-mile from his truck. He labored by way of the woods and dropped down a ridge into the boggy space. He began plotting out his digicam set-up when, out of nowhere, a cow moose began bellowing close by.
“She was pretty shut, and stored getting nearer and nearer,” Lewis says.
Fairly quickly, a refrain of bull grunts began responding to each bellow. Lewis listened arduous, and discerned a minimum of three bulls with distinctive vocalizations — they usually have been all headed his manner.
Then, a bull ripped a grunt proper subsequent to him. Lewis turned to see the bull some 50 yards away, swaying his head backwards and forwards, transferring by way of the skinny bushes towards him. The swaying antlers have been a certain signal that the bull was labored up.
“That’s once I pulled out my digicam and began recording,” Lewis says. “He slowly began wandering as much as me, and raked some bushes most likely 30 yards from me. There weren’t many bushes to cover behind. All of it occurred so quick, it type of caught me off guard. He walked downwind of me, and he will need to have smelled me. However he didn’t care. After they’re within the rut like that, they only don’t care.”
The bull began strolling parallel to Lewis, bulging his eyes at him in what commenters on the video dubbed “bombastic facet eye.” Then he began approaching Lewis head-on, nonetheless swaying his head backwards and forwards and knocking his giant paddles towards bushes.
Lewis realized how precarious his state of affairs was, however he’s additionally skilled multiple shut encounter with a moose. His go-to technique is solely to speak at them; often, moose need nothing to do with people and spook on the sound of his voice.
“However I acquired overconfident in the concept me speaking would spook him,” Lewis says. “This man was so fired up, he simply wasn’t even phased. His eyes bulged once I informed him he was shut sufficient. After I say that thrice, he begins swaying his head backwards and forwards once more like he doesn’t care, he simply thinks I’m one other bull. Then I took three steps backward and that’s when he charged me.”
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Lewis turned his again and put his hand out behind him out of intuition. One of many moose’s tines nicked his hand. Lewis took two extra steps after which, earlier than he knew it, he was sliding throughout the forest ground. The moose had used a paddle to knock Lewis down, not a lot whacking him as giving him a push.
Lewis stored yelling on the bull all through the ordeal, and it will definitely realized that Lewis was a human and never one other rut-crazed competitor. After pushing Lewis to the bottom, the moose turned and ran away. Lewis estimates he skidded roughly 6 ft. He sat on the bottom for a second and picked up himself. He was bruised, however not bleeding and there have been no damaged bones.
“I used to be sitting there within the dust, and I referred to as my spouse to inform her I’d simply acquired run over by a moose. She was not thrilled,” Lewis says. “However as I used to be speaking on the telephone, that cow was nonetheless behind me, and the 2 different bulls have been nonetheless grunting at her and circling her. They didn’t even care that I used to be on the telephone speaking and had simply screamed on the different bull. So I hung up and went again to the truck.
“For sure, I didn’t get the cameras hung up.”