(ANCHORAGE, Alaska) – A 70-year-old Alaska man trying to take photos of two newborn elk calves was attacked and killed by their mother, authorities said Monday.
The man killed Sunday was identified as Dale Chorman of Homer, said Austin McDaniel, spokesman for the Alaska Department of Public Safety.
The female moose recently gave birth to Homer’s calves.
“As they were walking through the brush looking for the elk, that’s when the cow elk attacked Dale,” McDaniel said.
The attack happened as the two were fleeing, he said. The second man, who has not been publicly identified, was unharmed.
That person did not witness the attack, so authorities cannot say whether the moose killed Chorman by kicking him or stomping him, or a combination thereof.
Doctors pronounced Chorman dead at the scene. The cow elk left the area, Alaska State Troopers said in an online post.
In 1995, a moose trampled a 71-year-old man to death as he tried to enter a building on the University of Alaska Anchorage campus. Witnesses said the students had been throwing snowballs and harassing the elk and her calf for hours, and the animals became agitated when the man tried to get past them.
There are up to 200,000 elk in Alaska, a state with a human population of about 737,000.
The animals are not normally aggressive, but can become aggressive if provoked, according to the state Department of Fish and Game website.
A cow elk will become very protective of young calves and will attack humans who get too close, the department says.
“Elk calving season is the time when you definitely want to give them extra space,” McDaniel said. “Cow elk with calves will be some of the most aggressive elk you will come into contact with.”
People should not scare the animals or get between the mother and her cubs, he said.
“These elk will become unpredictable and will work to protect their calves at any cost,” McDaniel said.
The largest of the deer family, a small adult female elk can weigh up to 800 pounds (363 kg), while a large adult male can weigh twice that, according to Fish and Game. The animals can be almost 1.8 meters tall.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
