Mother nature can be as brutal as she is beautiful, which is exactly what one Alaskan man witnessed last week.
While walking through the snowy landscape near western Alaska’s North River on Wednesday, Jeff Erickson made a startling discovery—two moose laid frozen in the nearby lake with their antlers locked. Erickson suspects the two drowned after fighting for a female’s attention and getting their antlers stuck.
“Two bulls got in a tussle over some ladies…and ended up being put on ice” Erickson wrote on his Facebook page alongside the shocking photos.
There have been numerous reports of the same thing happening with deer during the fall rut, when males are competing for a mate. Usually, though, they’re “good news stories” and at least one of the two animals are rescued before it’s too late. Unfortunately, these moose weren’t so lucky.
Despite the fact that more than half of their bodies were frozen beneath the surface of the ice, Erickson and his friend still worked to free the moose, hoping to salvage some meat and a head mount of the once-in-a-lifetime find.
Shortly after he posted the photos, they were shared by The Alaska Life Facebook page, where they were shared another 30,000 times and received than 3,000 comments. When you read the comments, and see what others are sharing in response, it quickly becomes apparent just how many deer and moose find themselves in similar predicaments.
Related Story Wild Profile: Meet the moose
Related Story Moose who traditionally live in the forest are now moving to the prairies