Throughout the years I’ve met wildlife many times, as it’d be expected. Some encounters have been very special, be it for the particular animal, the circumstances or the quality of the encounter. Yet it’d be easy for me to pick one up. This is why:

It happened in Yellowstone, Idaho section. The location is not the key even though it has an obvious influence in the actual animal we met. We were on a 8 day hike in the southwest section of the park. It was a dry, warm august afternoon, we were going through a flat area where meadows were turning golden and the heat was a bit oppressive.

In such scenario it was particularly welcome to get to a stream. We sat down by the water, took shoes off and got ready to take a refreshing break. I reached for the pack and got the filter, an old ceramic, pump filter that we used back then and started filling bottles. It was a very pleasant moment.

Then two moose appeared downstream. The little one would not get far from the adult, a clear case of mother and cub. They were slowly proceeding towards the water, sniffing around or whatever moose do around.

We didn’t need to keep quiet. We already were. The moose didn’t look any disturbed. We’d expect they’d get alert but they didn’t show any visible emotion. Mom would quietly look at us for a while. Then she’d lower her head again and be back to sniffing around. She had decided we were not dangerous.

By then I had already left the filter behind and quietly reached for my pack and the camera:

Moose

It almost felt wrong to do this. It’d have felt more natural to just stop and look, then maybe keep pumping. I only took a couple of pics anyway. Sorry for the poor quality, it’s a scan from paper. It was that long ago.

Other than the pics, we acted naturally. This included doing nothing that the animals could interpret as aggressive. The moose kept doing their things, got to the water to drink, quietly moved around getting as close as just a few yards from us, then moving slowly away until they got off view among the trees.

This encounter was very special not because of the short viewing distance but for something far more important and meaningful. Wildlife encounters are usually quick affairs where the human animal and the other animal surprise or even scare each other and the wildlife runs away as fast as possible, end of the story. Not this time.

We were seating quietly, doing our things. The moose showed up quietly, doing their things. Both moose and humans were animals that got to the water to drink. It wasn’t a sudden encounter, there was no surprise factor. Everything was so natural that everybody understood there was nothing to fear. Everybody kept to its own bussiness, except for my using the camera. Other than that, we were taking a break and relaxing and that’s what we kept doing. It was the natural thing to do as much as it was intentional because we were obviously enjoying the chance but it probably helped the moose understand we were no menace.

I have never felt so much a part of my environment as I did for those few minutes with the moose around. It’s a feeling I’ll never forget.

I wish you all many moments of such communion with nature. It’s one of the most beautiful feelings we can get as the animals and earthlings we are. In the end, nature is still our home.