# I know that moose get big, but yikes! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 17, 2009, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-that-moose-get-big-but-yikes/521651 "2009-12-17T16:56:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-that-moose-get-big-but-yikes/521651/61 "2009-12-18T06:09:55Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > It might be photoshopped, I’m no expert on that. But there’s no reason that photo couldn’t be real. > > The reason the background is the same in both photos is simply because both photos were taken from the same spot. > > And the moose isn’t 8 feet at the shoulder–the “road” is a one lane trail or track. You can see the characteristic unworn strip in the middle. And in northern areas where moose live, trees can be very small–you can have 50 year old black spruce that are only ten feet high. Your mind wants to see the trees as big trees and the road as a two lane road, which makes the moose seem bigger. > > And whatever the source for the moose image, it’s clearly a very large mature bull moose with a full set of antlers. And moose really are quite big, a lot bigger than people expect. Definitely a trail, in fact it kind of looks like the one where I take my dog for walks :D, but most of the “cat trails” all look alike so no telling. There are a lot of those all over the place, even in the city. And yeah, Sitka (we used to call the Sicka because they’re scrawny little things) don’t get all that big. The thing across the road looks like a downed tree branch, probably birch since it’s so white. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-that-moose-get-big-but-yikes/521651/62 "2009-12-18T06:51:33Z")
So while perusing Google in relation to this story, I came across [this photo](http://www.joe-ks.com/archives_mar2007/LoggingMoose.jpg). Who knew that moose were used as draft animals?! And what a beast! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-that-moose-get-big-but-yikes/521651/63 "2009-12-18T12:44:26Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > A moose once bit my sister. I hear moose bites can be nasti. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-that-moose-get-big-but-yikes/521651/64 "2009-12-18T12:50:01Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > So while perusing Google in relation to this story, I came across [this photo](http://www.joe-ks.com/archives_mar2007/LoggingMoose.jpg). Who knew that moose were used as draft animals?! And what a beast! > > :eek: I cannot imagine a moose doing this willingly. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-that-moose-get-big-but-yikes/521651/65 "2009-12-18T13:13:17Z")
> [@Shirley\_Ujest](#): > > I cannot imagine a moose doing this willingly. There’s been at least one case in Maine of a moose being using as a draft animal. It was raised by humans and was paired with a horse, IIRC. Not the best draft animal, mind you, but certainly an interesting sight. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-that-moose-get-big-but-yikes/521651/66 "2009-12-18T13:20:48Z")
> [@Shirley\_Ujest](#): > > I cannot imagine a moose doing this willingly. That one is, IIRC, photoshopped. At least the logs are (Just compare the left and right lower corners of the photo. They’re the same, only mirrored). Dunno about the elk, though. Elks in harness is not an unheard of thing. ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-that-moose-get-big-but-yikes/521651/67 "2009-12-18T14:11:53Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > A moose once bit my sister. > [@Telemark](#): > > Mynd you, møøse bites Kan be pretty nasti… We apologise for the fault in these posts. Those responsible have been sacked. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-that-moose-get-big-but-yikes/521651/68 "2009-12-18T16:48:04Z")
> [@Floater](#): > > That one is, IIRC, photoshopped. At least the logs are (Just compare the left and right lower corners of the photo. They’re the same, only mirrored). Dunno about the elk, though. Elks in harness is not an unheard of thing. This is indeed a photoshop - [Is This a Photo of a Moose Harnessed to Haul Lumber? | Snopes.com](http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/workmoose.asp) But as the links at the bottom of the snopes page show, moose can be harnessed and used for draft animals, although who knows how well-behaved they were. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-that-moose-get-big-but-yikes/521651/69 "2009-12-18T18:56:51Z")
Looks about right to me, and I’ve seen LOTS of bull moose. Looks like the camera angle is from a kneeling position, but the scale is fine. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-that-moose-get-big-but-yikes/521651/70 "2009-12-18T18:56:54Z")
Bull mooses are known to attack trains while in rut - I think I’d pass on harnessing up those beasties. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-that-moose-get-big-but-yikes/521651/71 "2009-12-18T20:08:50Z")
Maybe someone already included this link, but I found a link to a [webpage that discusses the controversy around these photos](http://struckbyenlightning.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/moose-mania/). ---
**Author:** ![Hanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b3f665/32.png) [@Hanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hanna)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-that-moose-get-big-but-yikes/521651/72 "2009-12-18T21:00:17Z")
Here I go again…I think what is really bothering me about that moose’s legs is that in the first photo the lower front legs are a soft dark grey, and in the second they are definitely black. If the photo was taken from the same location, at the same time of day, wouldn’t the leg colors be the same? The second photo looks like the legs have been re-colored to a darker shade. The first photo looks genuine to me, but the second looks weird - and it isn’t the size of the moose, that I totally believe. ---
**Author:** ![SmellMyWort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SmellMyWort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmellMyWort)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-that-moose-get-big-but-yikes/521651/73 "2009-12-18T21:02:22Z")
I received this in an email a couple months ago and think it’s real. If there is something fake about the photos, my guess would be that it’s a stuffed moose (or some other life-like statue) that was posed, not that it’s a photoshopped picture. ---
**Author:** ![FallenAngel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@FallenAngel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FallenAngel)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-that-moose-get-big-but-yikes/521651/74 "2009-12-18T21:34:39Z")
No comment on the picture being legit or not, but a quick moose story seems apropos. My MIL lives in a small town about 45 minutes outside of Montreal. Once when my wife went up to visit she was stuck in traffic for 2 hours because someone had done an accidental test of the, “Who wins in a fight between a full sized pickup and a moose?” rhetorical question, and it took that long to find and bring in the right piece of heavy equipment to move the carcass. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-that-moose-get-big-but-yikes/521651/75 "2009-12-18T22:20:03Z")
I am of the opinion that the photos in question are not Photoshopped. For one thing, I am pretty good with Photoshop and photography in general and have some understanding about how to tell if a pic is fake or not. Looking at those pics casually, I see no obvious signs that they are faked. But the main reason I think they are real has nothing to do with any technical analysis of the pics. When people fake a photo, they generally include something in the photo to cause “shock and awe”. This is usually pretty ham-fisted (like a tiny VW or wee little human next to the moose) but sometimes it’s a bit more subtle. In the case of these photos, any size reference is so subtle as to leave no purpose to faking the image to begin with-- there is really nothing in the pics that makes the moose appear to be ridiculously big. The only thing that comes close to being useful as a comparison for judging the animal’s size is the road, and there is just nothing obvious enough about the road’s size to clearly indicate that the moose is some freakishly large animal. As for the talk about tree sizes, that’s a non-starter unless you know exactly where the photos were taken. Why fake a photo if your fake doesn’t even clearly make the statement that it is somehow remarkable? IOW, I just don’t see any reason WHY someone would work so hard to fake these photos. Just like solving a crime: first, there has to be a motive. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-that-moose-get-big-but-yikes/521651/76 "2009-12-18T22:50:20Z")
It’s simply too difficult to get a sense of scale with the ambiguous points of reference in the original photographs. You need points of reference whose size you are familiar with to accurately gauge how big our moose is. [Moose with mouse](http://bodybotanicaspa.com/IMAGES/littlemoose.jpg) [Moose with Jabbar](http://bodybotanicaspa.com/IMAGES/big_moose.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-that-moose-get-big-but-yikes/521651/77 "2009-12-18T23:30:39Z")
> [@Tibbytoes](#): > > It’s simply too difficult to get a sense of scale with the ambiguous points of reference in the original photographs. You need points of reference whose size you are familiar with to accurately gauge how big our moose is. Yes. And that’s why I find it very unlikely that someone would fake a photograph of an abnormally large moose without bothering to include a point of reference that’s a universally known size. PS-- that second picture with Jabbar in it was obviously photoshopped! ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-that-moose-get-big-but-yikes/521651/78 "2009-12-18T23:32:16Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > This is indeed a photoshop - [Is This a Photo of a Moose Harnessed to Haul Lumber? | Snopes.com](http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/workmoose.asp) > > But as the links at the bottom of the snopes page show, moose can be harnessed and used for draft animals, although who knows how well-behaved they were. Damn it. I should have caught the mirrored logs myself. :smack: I still confess that I’m a bit disappointed. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-that-moose-get-big-but-yikes/521651/79 "2009-12-18T23:58:04Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > Yes. And that’s why I find it very unlikely that someone would fake a photograph of an abnormally large moose without bothering to include a point of reference that’s a universally known size. > > PS-- that second picture with Jabbar in it was obviously photoshopped! Well, no, neither of my photos was Photoshopped, I can assure you. But, I do admit that I’ve engaged in a little deception in my posed shots. In the first shot, our moose was posed alongside a Giant Tit Mouse: an exceptionally large rodent who often reaches a shoulder-to-ground height in excess of 3 meters. In the second shot, our moose is posed alongside Timmy Abdule Jabbar, Kareem’s younger midget brother: 32 inches and known for his unique high contrast, hyper-saturated appearance and his knack of casting no shadows. ---
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-that-moose-get-big-but-yikes/521651/80 "2009-12-19T00:01:18Z")
Moose are ridiculously huge. They average 6-7 ft tall at the shoulder after all. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-that-moose-get-big-but-yikes/521651.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-that-moose-get-big-but-yikes/521651.md?page=5)