How would you like to wake up one morning and find a family of moose in your backyard? That is exactly what happened to Roland Rydstrom from Anchorage, Alaska and luckily for us, he documented it all.
The momma moose and two calves apparently felt comfortable in Rydstrom’s backyard because not only did they stop by, they spent the day hanging out and eating his grass.
The moose family taste tested everything in his backyard from his nice green lawn to his lawn furniture. There are pictures of them nibbling his fence and tasting the trees, he said:
“As the moose family left and returned to the backyard, they’d nibble on plants, or in the case of the calves — the patio furniture and decorations in our’s and our neighbors’ backyard — just like a baby, putting everything in their mouth. In fact, our neighbor started turning her decorative patio lights off and on to try to scare the baby who kept trying to eat a light bulb because she was afraid the glass would break in its mouth. The mama loves eating our yellow begonias and the neighbor’s orange begonias; she also loves the leaves on the trees, the astilbe, bleeding hearts (they’ve bloomed and I’m lucky she didn’t eat them that day), and the orange blossom bush’s leaves.”
The images of the adorable calves cozied up together are the sweetest. They look so cute standing on their long wobbly legs to nurse. Rydstrom posted on Facebook about his visitors:
“The view outside my Covid home office is better than yours today. They arrived a bit before 9 am and except for two quick trips around the neighborhood, they've been camped out here all day.”
“Edit: Thanks to all who've shared these moose pictures. When I posted these Tuesday, I didn't expect them to get shared throughout the world, except from my own friends. But people love moose, so..”
“As the question keeps coming up in comments in the shared posts, I just thought I'd cut to the chase and answer it here:
These pictures were taken in our backyard in Anchorage, Alaska. It's very, very common to see moose in our backyard as it is on the normal "loop" for the moose who hang out in our neighborhood.”
After the moose left, he had some cleaning up to do:
“And we did rebuild -- after the moose left the yard, I was able to return to the scene of the crime to return the marigold pot to its rightful place. The sociopathic, marigold-hating baby moose loses this round. Enjoy!”
“Edit 2: These are twins, born in our neighborhood about 12 days before I took these pictures. And I took these with my iPhone X. #TheMarigoldPotIsUprightAgain”
The moose spent most of their day enjoy his backyard and the two calves are so adorable stretched out on his grass. We can only imagine what he thought when he opened the blinds and saw them there in the morning. He told Bored Panda:
“Right away, I found the Flat Standley my cousins sent me from Iowa. I had promised my cousins and their elementary school group that I’d take a picture of Flat Stanley with the moose in my yard, but so far in the almost three months I’d been working from home, I hadn’t been home when the moose were here — a very common experience. Flat Stanley had been out on the local hiking trails with me, but so far I’d been unlucky with moose pictures.”
“I took the pictures of the moose with Flat Stanley, and took a few without him and went to work. I really expected that the moose would walk away at some point but every time I looked up from my work, they were still there,” Rydstrom explained. “I could watch directly them from my work spot. It was a great distraction and a fun way to spend the day while I was editing concert footage for my job with the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra. Throughout the day, as the moose changed lounging spots or walked away and came back, I’d go back to the window or the open door (the screen door was still closed), to take more pictures of them. They were oblivious to me most of the time (although their ears were up most of the time, so obviously they were alert).”
We wish we could see the pictures of the moose with Flat Stanley but we are so thankful he shared these with the world. The images are adorably and so special. What a great day that must have been.
Please share some moose love with your family and friends.
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