Beware the moose!

It's about that time, when people are getting into trouble with our state's bigger residents (and I don't mean people who watch too much TV!). Around this time of year, cow moose are deadly, and more people have problems with moose than bears. And on the Kenai, they're already having problems! Usually we have to wait until mid-may for this kind of excitement!

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Alaska Wildlife Troopers rescued two Ohio men after the pair interrupted a life-or-death struggle between a moose and a wolf.

Sean Evans, 31, of Toronto, Ohio, and his cousin, Josh Clark, 30, of Scio, were snowshoeing out to a cabin on the Kenai Peninsula south of Anchorage on Thursday when they rounded a bend in the trail, ducked under a fallen tree and saw the spectacle crashing toward them from about 20 feet away.

"The wolf had torn off some skin from the moose's neck and was hanging on its neck," Clark told the Anchorage Daily News. "We kind of looked at each other for three seconds and decided to start moving."

The wolf took off when it saw the pair, but the moose charged them. They dropped their packs. Clark climbed a birch tree while his cousin got behind the fallen log.

They couldn't spook the moose, even when they yelled and threw things at it, he said.

"Anytime one of us moved, it kind of charged and paused," Clark said. "I was in the tree. I didn't care. So anytime (Evans) would start making noises, I would try to sort of distract it, because I felt pretty safe."

I wonder if it was a cow who just had her calf eaten? It's not uncommon for a nearly-yearling to still be around a cow this time of year...

"They were totally blocked. The moose isn't going anywhere," Acton said. "They'd been hiking and snowshoeing in, so they didn't have all of their cold-weather gear on because of perspiration and all that, and now one's been up in the tree for four hours. I mean, he was visibly shaking, I think not only from adrenaline but from the elements as well."

For the men's safety, troopers decided to kill the moose.

Too bad. Still, not much else you can do in that situation.