Catherine Rusoff
A 70-year-old Alaska man trying to take photos of two newborn elk calves was attacked and killed by his 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 has left the area, Alaska State Troopers said in a online posting.
The daily news from Anchorage reported that his son, Nathan Spence-Chorman, wrote on social media that his father “died on his property, walking through the woods with a dear friend, in search of a great photograph.”
“Dale had a lot of experience with wildlife. He was intimately familiar with nature and had no naivety about danger. This wasn’t some hapless idiot who stumbled into danger – this was a person who went out looking for a great photo, knowing the risks, and was caught at a dangerous moment,” wrote Nathan Spence-Chorman, according to the newspaper, adding: “The moose is obviously not to blame.”
Mark Thiessen/AP
In 1995, a female moose trampled to death a 71-year-old man 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. What moose was killed by wildlife authorities.
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, while a large adult male can weigh twice that, according to Fish and Game. The animals can be almost 6 meters tall.
Last September, a moose attacked and injured a woman and her dog in Colorado. Authorities said the cow moose headbutted the woman and stomped on her several times. A few days earlier, a moose in Colorado attacked and trampled a walker whose dog started barking at the animal while walking along a trail.
