This is still the dead of winter here (Matsu valley, AK) but I’m guessing in the lower elevations some plants must be starting to flow sap up their stems . For the last week or so moose have been popping up left and right.
The winter storms were not kind to my fencing. I need to do some emergency repairs and schedule some enhancements for this spring.
Here it is the deer and elk. Moose seem to like the higher country where I am. You tend to see them in places like Grand Lake. I am lucky we do not see many of them. We almost see them like many city folk see deer though.
once the ditches melt the moose come out to lap up the salt in the ditch and browse on the 1st seasons grass there as well. nothing to see 3 or 4 together doing the same thing. we are months away from seeing the ground near roads yet.
They can be mean. One wandered down from Colorado to Northern New Mexico and officials were really worried. He went away after a couple of months.
during the rut here in sept/oct the bulls will attack cars and people. ive had some close calls with bull moose when out grouse hunting. never honk your horn at a bull moose in the road or he may walk into the woods wearing the grill of your car on his antlers. watched it happen. 
We are far from seeing the ground and fortunately we don’t salt here.
Heck I got treed the other day. I was at the top of my driveway, already dark out, waiting for doggie to do number 2, when up the driveway comes this big moose. Doggie goes after it, they start dancing (doggie is too fast for the moose to get anywhere near), while I sink through the deep snow to go hug the nearest tree. The risk is that the moose decides that an old dude is a heck of a slower target and go after me instead, but fortunately they can’t turn fast enough. Eventually doggie gets in the driveway, the moose senses that it can get a better running start, and goes chasing doggie up. I was then able to walk to the house so I can get in the car and go get doggie.
last winter a friend of ours son was out training his sled dogs for our cam am dog sled race we have here when he came around a curve and came face to face with a moose on the trail. it immediately started trying to trample the dogs. he wasnt armed so he ran a half mile to a home, borrowed a rifle and went back. fired several shots in the air and finally scared it off. 1 dog needed emergency surgery but all recovered. the wardens said the moose likely saw the dogs as a pack of wolves and because of deep snow thought it had no choice but to fight on the trail or get killed. there was a similar incident in western Maine. that musher lost 2 dogs but was armed and managed to fatally shoot the moose. they arent a animal to take lightly.
There have been a few videos that have made news here in CO with moose. One was a moose just rampaging downwards and the second was a family that got attacked. Most of the family got away but I think the girl stayed still and got hit.
The warden was giving the moose too much credit, they are too stupid and unpredictable.
My dog is a veteran at harassing moose. I have seen some that run, some that chase, and some that could not care less. Heck once there was a mommy moose with baby in tow, doggie goes barking after her, and she just looked at him uninterested and kept munching on branches. It didn’t take long for doggie to realize that the moose wasn’t going to run nor chase so he just walked away after less than a minute.
Yes, most moose are not as friendly as Bullwinkle . For a few winters there was one moose that took to staying in and around our town. Pretty unusual as they usually stay at higher elevations and closer to water. Fortunately this moose was either older or perhaps sick as it pretty much ignored all the humans who would come around to watch it. Including quite a few kids, which I thought was a bit risky. This last winter we saw two moose come through our property and stop to nibble on the willow which grows by the road culvert. Must be hard times at the higher elevations for them to be wandering around here.
But in general moose and elk are not all that friendly to humans and downright aggressive to dogs.
We live around a ton of moose. The only thing you can expect for sure is for them to be unpredictable. To be clear they are not about to cross the street to pick on you but you don’t want to be too close to one when their brain synapses decide to spark a thought.
There was a family in my town that posted pictures on Facebook of them feeding a local moose. Well the moose was all sort of docile, eating off their hands, until the one day that it decided to stomp on one of the dumb asses. apparently the person did not have food right then and there and that pissed the moose off. Long story short the moose started chasing and harassing everybody, somebody got a gun and shot the obviously aggressive moose, but after the fact fish and game threw the book at them because they went out of the way to bait this moose.
yes sometimes they act stupid but what the warden said makes sense. the snow last year was very deep and a moose cant defend itself in deep snow. it was fight as flight wasnt doable and it saw his dog team as a organized pack on the hunt. like a grizzly they know they have a size advantage that they use to great effect. ive heard of stories of cow moose killing grizzlies that were trying to take their calves. they use their front hooves like daggers and come down on them. old Maine guides here say they fear a cow moose defending their calf over a sow bear defending their cubs. surprised your pup didnt get stomped. my guess as she’s been around domesticated dogs long enough that she doesnt see them as a threat anymore.
The point being is that there is no telling what they will do, it could go in any number of directions. When one of the options is to stomp you into the ground the smart thing is to stay away from them. Even if you are good at reading them you don’t want to be there when they change their mind, which they do.
Heck one of the most common moose videos is this bunch of tourist feeding a moose and taking pictures with it. Heck you could see this one was spooked by the way the hair on the back was all the way up. It ended up stumping a kid.
And there is a video of this other moron on his snow machine talking about his harrowing experience being attacked by a moose. Well the dumb ass chase the moose a bit to try to get him off the trail until the moose would have none of it.
As a kid I would go snowmobiling in north Idaho every winter at priest lake and Fernan state park. Many moose would be on the groomed trails after a big snow dump. Taking advantage of the snow pack. My uncle always said to stop, turn around, and go the long way. You don’t mess with a moose. This was advice I never challenged growing up. You would read stories every season about moose ramming a snowmobile group right over a steep embankment if you could not give them a wide berth. Definitely scarier than a bear at how inflammatory their personalities can be. They never would hop off the groomed trail. Even if you had to tail them a few miles because the terrain was too steep to turn around.