Viral Videos: Moose on the Loose

TWA's Inside Scoop on your Favorite Viral Videos

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This viral video of Theresa & CJ's "Moose Encounter" in Banff, Canada has been viewed over 3 million times, as of this date.

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Theresa Malan works at the
Canada House Gallery
in Banff, Canada

"Boreal Monarch" by Terry McCue

by Theresa Malan

​​This happened Thursday December 15th at Peter Lougheed Provincial Park / Kananaskis Alberta. Just outside our home in Banff National Park .  

​My husband CJ Malan and I live in Banff National Park and we love our surroundings. We love our protected environment and on a daily basis we see lots of natural wildlife. Elk, bear, eagles, deer, wolves. Moose are a rarity to see here in this area of Canada but they are here…... I have lived her for 12 years and have only ever seen 4-6 moose and always at a very large distance.

My husband CJ is new to Canada, he is originally from South Africa but has been living in the UK for 10 years with the British military, This is his first year here in Canada so every opportunity we get, we love to be out doors exploring the national parks together. His goal was to see a moose and we totally got more than a  “Spotting” of a moose. I feel like we made friends with this moose!

I work at Canada House Gallery in Banff and now I feel like I need to add “Boreal Monarch” by Terry McCue to our art collection to commemorate our time spent with this cool kind-eyed moose. Terry is one of my fav artists here at the gallery and he is First Nations Ojibway and he is such an incredible colorist and story teller with his paintings…..after this experience I think we need this moose in our life, haha. 

Moose are quite solitary, and can be aggressive. This moose was probably about 3-5 years old so he was big…..but not the biggest. We drive a Ford escape and he was taller than the vehicle!

He was totally chill and docile.  We went out for a drive that day to specifically see if we could spot a moose as there had been “Moose Warnings” out in that area that they were licking cars….. so we tried our luck.  

After driving for about 2-3 hours, with no spottings, we decided to turn around and ...Boom! There he was, this beautiful bull, standing still and staring at us out of the woods on the side of the road.

There were two other vehicles pulled over as they were out "back country skiing," and he started licking the other pulled over truck (Moose have learned they can get salt from licking vehicles). We decided to watch from a distance. He was so unbothered and the road we were on was totally quiet and very wide. If had it been anything different we wouldn’t have stuck around, for the safety of the moose. 

After a couple of minutes we were able to roll in a little closer and he knew we were there and watching him, still not caring, and more so looking at us as his next snack and very appreciative.

He then made his way over to us and I was a tad bit apprehensive because, with each step closer he took, the larger he became and it was overwhelming. Yet, he was incredibly gentle and amusing as he made his way around our car, gently bumping his dish (antlers) against our car.

About 10-15 min into his snack on our car the skiers returned to their vehicle behind us and they couldn’t believe what they were witnessing. They were about 20 meters away from us and the moose even knew they were there, taking off all their equipment and loading up their car, and the moose couldn’t care less. He was so infatuated with the salt he was getting for his diet from our car.

Had there been any aggression shown or uncomfortable nature the back country skiers would have gotten into their car for safety…as with us (we never got out of the car or unrolled the windows). Had there been any danger or aggression we wouldn’t have stuck around. We are very very respectful of the animals we live around and advocate for safe and conservation focused wildlife viewing. We are always very responsible and respectful.

We DO see a lot of disrespectful behavior from national park visitors  causing “Bear Jams” which is essentially a traffic jam caused by a bear on the side of the road,  and by people causing a very disruptive stir either by stopping or by getting out of their car for photos (which is SO not cool).

So yea……I’d say we were very lucky to have this moment but had the roads been busy, packed, narrow, or anything of that nature, we would have left straight away.

If you are ever in Banff, please keep your safety, and the safety of our wildlife in mind and, please, stop in to see me at the Gallery!  I'd love to meet you and we are located right downtown at 201 Bear Street, Banff, Alberta, Canada. I'll give you some recommendations on some great places to eat and things to do!

UPDATE: The video and story are making their way around the globe. Scroll down to see some of our favorite ones... including in Russian and Japanese!

See more MOOSE encounter

More on Banff & the Gallery

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Theresa & CJ (Gerhard) Malan live in Banff in the Alberta Province of Canada right in the heart of the Banff National Park.

They are passionate about nature and the arts... CJ works at the Banff Center for Arts & Creativity while Theresa, as you already know, works at the Canada House Gallery.

Follow them on Facebook:  Theresa & CJ/Gerhard
​#Moose #Canada #Banff #ViralVideo 

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