A man was trampled and injured by a moose outside his Houston home late Wednesday night, in the latest encounter during a snowy winter that has driven the ungulates into Southcentral Alaska urban areas.
Alaska State Troopers said in an online dispatch that the man’s wife reported the trampling, outside their home near King Arthur Drive in Houston, just after midnight Thursday. Medics took the man to an area hospital, where he was treated and released later that day.
Alaska Wildlife Troopers responded to investigate the trampling, with Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologists also notified.
“Investigation revealed the (husband) heard their dogs barking just prior to midnight and walked outside to check what was going on,” troopers said. “The moose was in the immediate area around the dogs unbeknownst to the male due to the darkness. The (man) was subsequently trampled.”
Troopers spokespersons weren’t immediately available for comment Thursday afternoon.
Several prominent moose encounters this winter have made Alaska headlines, most recently the moose shot and killed by musher Dallas Seavey early Monday near Skwentna as it charged his team during this year’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Last month, a teenage girl headed to school was trampled by a moose near Plumley Road in Palmer, with a wildlife trooper later killing the animal.
Fish and Game officials have urged people not to feed moose, which accustoms them to both humans and being fed. Troopers cited an Anchorage coffee-shop owner for feeding a moose in December, with another moose going viral online after approaching customers outside Anchorage’s DeBarr Road Costco store last month.
Chris Klint is a web producer and breaking news reporter at Alaska Public Media. Reach him at cklint@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Chris here.
