Trifter

Algonquin Park, about 280 km or 175 miles north-east of Toronto, is Ontario’s largest provincial park and one of its many claims to fame is being home to one of the largest populations of moose in North America. The Park also has wolves, bears, and deer but they’re altogether harder to see.   

Algonquin Park Muddy Moose – - all images by author

Moose, in case you’re not familiar, are a large (up to 700 kg or 1600 lbs for a fully grown male) member of the deer family that have adapted to the marshy parts of the land, which in the north-east corner of the North American continent seems to have been most of it before we came along and drained it for farming.

Moose happily stand in mud up to their knees grazing the marsh grasses and drinking the really unpleasant looking water. Normally they do this well out of sight, thankfully, but in Algonquin, and in May and June, they come right out to the roadside. They do this because, for once, the human race has done something that meets their needs — we salt the road in winter. One of Ontario’s regular roads, highway 60, runs through the southern tip of the Park and in the spring, when the ice and snow melt, all that salt ends up in the roadside marshes. Moose, after their long winter eating practically nothing, need lots of salt and come out of the forest to gorge.     

Danger Moose Crossing

The best part of this annual event is you can see it from your car. You don’t have to canoe for hours or hike for days through the wilderness on the off-chance you’ll spot an animal before it spots, or even just hears, you and runs away. Highway 60 is a regular road and driving slowly along it, you will generally see at least one or two moose; the best times are the hours just after sunrise and again later, just before and after sunset. Regular hunters will tell you how they stalked for hours, or sat days in hides testing their patience and skill against the mighty moose before bagging the big one with the huge antlers. Having walked up to a moose at the roadside, so close I could have reached out and touched it, I’m somewhat sceptical. Certainly, when moose are getting their annual salt fix they’re almost oblivious to people. Cars pull up and people jump out, snapping away with cameras and cell phones. 

Reach Out and Touch

Like regular hunters, wildlife photographers also revel in the thrill of the chase and this chase is way too easy. You can’t dine out long on the story of how you got your moose picture (unless you embellish it a little with creative licence). On one evening in early May, we saw a dozen moose while driving through the Park and all within about 25 meters, say fifty feet, of the road. The numbers of moose vary by the day, of course, and dwindle as spring slips into summer. By mid-June, the show is pretty well over, though there are guides who will, for a fee, take you out onto the lakes and into the forest to see moose ‘Cows and Calves’ later in the summer and moose ‘Bulls Rutting’ in the autumn.    

Algonquin Park Moose

If wildlife interests you, the Algonquin Park annual moose show is a place you shouldn’t miss. And you can always claim you were out in the bush alone, just you and the moose — provided you capture the shot right.  And if you don’t? Well, that’s what Photo-shop is for, isn’t it?