Kissing The Moose

As told by Doug Williams to Julie Kapyrka

Early one morning, I was hunting moose in northern Ontario, in this spot that was clear cut by a lumber company. I sat at the edge of this clear cut that was maybe half a kilometre long and sort of square.

When daybreak came there was a cow moose feeding in the middle of this open area. She was feeding there, and I was watching her. But I was hoping maybe a bull would come along.

I sat there for quite some time watching her eat. She’d raise her head up the odd time, smell the air, and go back down again. Daybreak came at 7:30am and she was still there at 10am. So I decided I’ll have some fun and see how close I can get to her – to see how good I am at camouflage, stealth, and sneaking up to animals. I used to be very good at it when I was younger.

So I started out and I went behind some small spruce trees on the edge of the clear cut. I went from little tree to tree to some big logs laying around. What the lumber company would do is cut down trees they wouldn’t use. Some of them were really big like the black balsam poplars and they were just laying around in this open area.

So I go sneaking, slowly in her direction. Once in a while I would pop my head up to see if she’s still there. And she’s still there!

Then I was getting really close; maybe I was about 100 yards away from her and there’s a big balsam poplar, 4 feet in diameter, laying there. So I snuck up to it and I popped my head up over it to look at her and I was really close now, maybe 80 yards from her. But something attracted my attention on the other side of this log.

Lying there, is a huge Bull Moose sleeping! With his head down on the ground all curled up. I was hoping: holy geez, I hope it doesn’t smell me! There are no trees around here, if he gets mad I am not going to be able to do anything here – so I ducked back down behind that log to start back the way I came. I took a deep breath and popped my head up slowly again and the bull moose was gone! Suddenly there was a motion directly in front of my face and that bull moose raised its head above the huge log. I was face-to-face with the nose of the bull.

I dared not move. The bull froze. He could smell me now but he could not see me because I was in his blind spot.

How stealthy was I! So I kissed that Bull Moose right on the nose! And what happened next was extraordinary…but that is another story.