For most, the sport of BASE jumping is scary enough. Leaping off buildings or cliffs and quickly pulling a parachute leaves little room for error. But for one BASE jumper, the scariest part came after landing when he came face-to-face with a moose.
“It’s not very often I’m MORE scared after landing,” posted BASE jumper Sean Dame on Instagram. “This moose encounter was closer than I wanted.”
Dame’s page is full of skydiving and BASE jumping videos, but his face-to-face encounter with a moose definitely took off online.
Check out the viral clip:
The video begins with Dame jumping off a cliff in an area surrounded by fall foliage. He lands near a trail and a parking lot just in time to see two small moose initially run off. But then they come charging back.
Still tied to his parachute, Dame grabs the lines to help him move if needed. That’s when a third larger moose appears out of the trees. Dame calls this animal the “papa moose.” He keeps an eye on the animal as it decides whether Dame is a threat.
Fortunately, the moose eventually move out of the area, and Dame makes a run for the parking lot.
Dame is definitely not wrong to be afraid of a moose. As other comments on the video say, they would rather not come face-to-face with a moose and would even prefer to see a bear or mountain lion.
Even the Alaska Department of Fish and Game acknowledges the dangers of moose. On the agency’s website, they mention that more people in Alaska are injured by moose each year than by bears. They say that while moose are usually not aggressive, they can be agitated if they feel harassed by people or dogs. Wildlife officials recommend keeping a safe distance when spotting them in the wild.