VAN BUREN, Maine — A Maine man walked away with what he feared would have been interpreted as a tall tale had he not taken video to prove it.
Joey Ouellette saw a young moose sitting, not moving on his property in Van Buren on Sunday, March 17, so he decided to investigate. Ouellette walked up the steep snow and ice covered Lake Road that heads to Long Lake to check on the calf that he assumed might be injured or sick.
"Moose typically go the other way," Ouellette, an avid hunter, told NEWS CENTER Maine.
Ouellette took out his phone to capture the close encounter and says he did not expect what happened next.
As he approached, the calf got to its feet, its ears arched back and it let out a growl at Ouellette.
"It was something I have never heard before...I knew right then and there the land the moose was on was no longer mine," Ouellette recalls.
Ouellette started running down the hill but says he felt his feet slipping and was worried if he fell the moose would trample him. A nearby snowbank served refuge from the calfs' path.
Ouellette believes the moose got within feet of him. The video he says came in handy when he was telling his tale to his daughters and wife, who he says would not have believed him if he didn't have proof.
The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife recommends keeping a safe distance from moose and other wildlife to avoid injury or upsetting animals.