Watch a vehicle get crushed in a young 600-lb moose vs car showdown
Are you ready to rumble? In this corner, we’ve got a driver safely tucked into their vehicle taking a video on their phone. In the other corner, we’ve got an ornery moose with its sight set on the car. Sure, it doesn’t appear to be a full-grown animal in this moose vs car fight, but that didn’t stop it from causing some serious damage.
In a moose vs car altercation, the big mammal does big damage
If you live in a northern state, you’ve likely seen a moose or two on the roads. Like deer, they pose a unique road hazard to cars, trucks, SUVs, and minivans. However, a full-grown female moose can weigh over 1,000 lbs, over three times as much as a comparable white-tailed deer. That’s a whole lot of weight.
Consequently, most moose vs car collisions end with terrible damage to the vehicle, often beyond repair. Imagine the shock, then, when a driver in a snow-laden parking lot met a young moose head-on.
In a viral video, a driver is sitting in a truck with their camera pointed over the steering wheel. The headlights illuminate an animal sprinting toward the vehicle. It doesn’t seem to expend any energy stopping, instead using the parked truck as its brakes.
The moose cruises past parked cars and crashes into the truck, sliding up onto its windshield. In an almost cartoonish maneuver, the animal’s hind legs push up above the sightline, sending its front legs first into the ground. Impressively, the large animal stands up, shakes it off, and walks away.
In this case, the animal survived a run-in with a car. However, in many instances, animals aren’t so lucky. As terrible as it sounds, some places have systems to use felled moose after a collision. For instance, on my last trip to Alaska, I was surprised to hear about a roadkill lottery. The Alaska Department of Public Safety mandates that drivers report large animal roadkill to the state.
The state then selects the next applicable candidate on the “DPS Roadkill” program list and informs them. After the call, the candidate has just 30 minutes to claim the animal and reach the scene. As morbid as it might sound, a large animal can serve a family or a community well during one of The Last Frontier’s harsh winters.
