I know some guys who consider themselves great hunters. I suspect that if this walked up on them they would: scream like a woman, wet themselves, run away and hide. Not necessarily in that order.

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/10/marys_monday_metazoan_mighty_m.php

On the same page, in the comment section, is a link to this:
http://www.jerrysbaitandtackle.com/Trophies/Moose/WorldRecord.htm

So evidently they exist that big. It isn't just a Photoshop trick. Which actually makes like the idea of wilderness even more. I think we need some places where remarkable things happen, where an epic, nearly mythical beasts exist. We need places where we can still experience wonder. Even if it means that a hunter or hiker has to buy more underwear.

"I suspect that if this walked up on them they would: scream like a woman, wet themselves, run away and hide. Not necessarily in that order."

And so would the grizzly looking for dinner...

Sue

Mooseasaurus!

If any moose walked up behind me I'd scream.

They're all big and would total my car.

While I know Moose are incredibly large (7 feet at the shoulders in the extreme), I believe this is a fake. Too many shadow anomalies between the pics.

That's someone's big plastic moose they picked up and moved down
the road.

Without knowing the distances and the lens used it is really hard to judge the size of animals from a photo.
Rough measurements seem to indicate a shoulder height of about 8 or 9 feet.
This is assuming the road track to be about 5 feet, which is pretty standard for most vehicle tire track widths.

I am with NightHiker on this one.

I am just going to enjoy the pictures, remember being astonished how big moose really are, and let the technicians debate whether these images are real or photoshopped.

I grew up in upstate New York and when I was about 16 years old (i.e., invulnerable) a moose was making the local news as it walked through the area. It ended up walking across our property and I tracked its footprings in the snow . . . until I looked up and saw a path of branches that had all the snow knocked off at least 10' up. I walked probably another 15 or 20 feet before I understood what I was seeing - the path the moose's antler's were making way up where I couldn't reach even if I jumped. I then stopped and considered my puniness and went home. Twenty plus years later, it's still a memory that comes easily to me. Is the photo altered? I don't care. Moose are BIG.

Those first two pics look like Moosesauruses.

IIRC, moose can be pretty dangerous animals. On a few occasions I've heard they're responsible for more death and injury than bears and other 'commonly assumed to be dangerous' animals.

All in all, after seeing some pretty big animals out in the wild, I've given up the notion of carrying a .22lr, especially a single shot 22lr, as my only survival rifle. Animal attacks may be rare, but they aren't impossible....and somehow I doubt a .22lr is going to do anything stop or slow down an animal like that moose.

Moose are most dangerous during rutting season-they travel places they dont normally go, to mate. And, they lose their shyness. This is when car strikes happen-during the fall. Thats why they are so dangerous.
Two quick moose stories. First one, I was hiking part of the AT in MA about a dozen years ago, and a section hiker was telling me a story about how she was treed by a moose. She had seen it near the trail (this was in VT), and tried to sneak up on it to get a better pic. The moose, for whatever reason, didnt like that, and chased her. She managed to get high up a tree, and the moose, acording to her, didnt leave for quite some time. She did manage to get a few pics of the moose while being treed (this was when we still had FILM cameras) and showed me the two she kept with her. I guess moose dont like sneaky people.
Second story, just recently I went to my pipe majors house (I am a bagpiper), and he was all excited to show me something in his driveway. Well, lo & behold, the was a HUGE pile of moose droppings. Apparently a cow had been wandering the streets (its a mix of rural & urban terrain) near where he lived, even made the local news. Well, she decided to do her business on his driveway. Now, I dont know how the size of a scat pile relates to the size of the animal, but the pile was HUGE!!!

I have no idea if the photos have been tweaked. Or, indeed, if this is a Moose of Unusual Size (though anything is possible in the Fire Swamp).

But I can say that I've had several close encounters with moose cows with a calves, usually at VERY close quarters, such as coming across them in dense black spruce bush. They were alert but calm; and I was calmly backing off, in a very thoroughly calm manner. They're bloody big, and this is from a guy who worked cattle for the first half of his life. We all got along. I have had many more close encounters with moose than with bear.

I also had a bull moose walk right up to my house and look in through the picture window. That puts his head at least 8 ft. off the ground. I was in the twilight of sleep, in my housecoat, nursing my first morning Java; it was a magical experience. (Seriously, this happened.) In later years, we had a bull come through each fall, walking through a wheatfield or canola crop that was 3-1/2 feet tall; you could clearly see daylight under his belly. Again, very cool.

The Moose is Loose.

I don't think that it's doctored. The shadows are consistant but telephoto lense effects (shortening perspective) may make him look larger than he is.

Having said that, he looks to be about 7" at the shoulder.

Here is a photo of moose pulling a wagon. I remember this photo
from a trip to Canada when I was in scouts as a kid. Long
before photoshop.

http://www.archivesalberta.org/odd/moose.htm


here is another
http://www.museevirtuel.ca/pm.php?id=rec...7&rd=170539

http://www.alaskahistorystore.org/p194.html

Mooses of Unusual Size are called 'MUSes'.

Sue

moose pulling wagons was the 1800's version of a tricked up car.the Northern Minnesota story is about the guy who would drive into one of the logging towns on a Saturday nite,red leather harness and all.the local guys for a "joke" hid by the road and did a moose call on a birch horn.the moose of course took off ripping the wagon and harness off.it was said to be seen off in the woods much later feeding on willow with bits of the harness still on..and yes they get very big.i would rather deal with a bear in my camp than a stand off with a moose on a portage trail.

During a trip through Yellowstone, I spotted a moose with calf far out in a meadow next to a swampy area. I guessed the animals to be over 100 yards away.

Many cars began stopping next to mine. One guy took his camera and began walking toward the moose. He was about 6 feet tall.

At first he appeared to be getting smaller as he walked into the distance, and the size of the moose stayed the same. Then an amazing thing happened that got the growing crowd scared: as he walked closer to the moose his image seemed to stay the same size but the moose grew larger and larger!

It was clear momma moose was taller at the shoulder than his 6 feet !

I had something similar happen while I was a summer concession employee in Yellowstone. I was taking a shortcut from our dorms to another part of the Canyon area. It was a pretty wooded and dark area and for some reason, I decided to take my eyes away from the ground and look up. As my vision shifted up, what I saw at the top of what I assumed were the trunks of just some more young trees was in fact a very large moose cow. I had all but walked right into her. All I remember thinking is, 'wow, that's a big moose' as I noticed that the bottom of her head was above the top of mine. I took a few steps to the left and went on my way. Well okay, I did look over my shoulder a few times.

In Yellowstone, it was always the elk that gave me the most trouble. I've been chased back in to the Firehole River a few times while fishing.