Motorists have seen the highway signs that warn of falling rocks, and they've seen the ones that warn of moose crossing. Now Howard Peterson of the Alaska State Troopers wonders if they need a new sign:Watch for falling moose.
A swing-shift trooper based in Girdwood, Peterson was cruising the Seward Highway the night of Feb. 2 a couple miles north of McHugh Creek when something big and black fell from the sky, landing about 20 feet from his car.
"Falling rock!" he thought, ready to steer clear if it bounced onto the highway. When the rock didn't roll or shatter, Peterson's brain came up with a crazy image:
"Falling moose?"
An adult moose, wandering rocky terrain more suitable to the Dall sheep that populate it, plunged to its death from the tall cliffs that hug a highway famous for its scenery and wildlife. The animal landed on the side of the road just a few yards in front of Peterson, who figures it fell 150 feet, maybe farther. He snapped a couple of photos and called one of the charities that salvage road kill to tell them there was a moose available at Mile 113.
Then he started wondering what happened. Did the moose jump? "How would you say it—moose-icide? He probably thought he was the only moose, with all those sheep around," Peterson said.
Sinnott has heard or moose dying in strange ways — breaking through ice and drowning, jumping off railroad bridges at the sound of a train, falling off small banks. Once he saw the remains of two bulls that died during a rutting battle when their antlers got hooked together by a single piece of barbed wire.
A fall off a cliff probably doesn't happen often, he said.