Alaska has some of the most breathtaking natural beauty and wildlife in the country.
But living there can also lead to some hair-raising encounters.
And things got very tense for this Alaska mom who met a moose at her latest trip to Costco.
Living in Alaska comes with its own unique challenges.
An Alaska mom thought she was making a routine trip to the Costco Wholesale club in Anchorage to stock up.
After her shopping trip, she was greeted by an unexpected visitor as she tried to load up her SUV.
Moose tries to get into the groceries
Amber Rotar – an Anchorage mother of two – went to Costco to buy produce for her meal prep business.
As she was loading up her SUV, a bull moose wandered over to her shopping cart.
Moose are the second largest land animal in North America behind the bison and can weigh up to 1,600 pounds.
And it was interested in the produce in the cart.
“Thankfully, I didn’t have my kids, so it’s like, I don’t have to worry about not having my children trampled,” Rotar said. “But no, I just tried not to aggravate him.”
If you take a moose to Costco… pic.twitter.com/AhWS1XuEqE
— QENNY is really like that (@AKBrews) February 13, 2024
Rotar tried to shew the animal away with her motherly voice by saying “Scooch” while holding up her finger.
But the moose was interested in the sweet potatoes in her grocery cart.
“He came over and stuck his face in my sweet potatoes and was also quite curious about my … flannel sheets, and then bell peppers,” Rotar said.
She offered up some of her sweet potatoes to the moose, but it became disinterested in them.
Only a shopping cart was between her and a moose that dwarfed her in size.
Rotar started to film the behemoth when she noticed a telltale sign of aggression – the moose’s ears started to pin back.
“We only got about 9-10 seconds because when his behavior — his ears changed, I decided it was probably more important to focus on him and not on my phone,” Rotar explained.
She stood there waiting for the moose to leave.
“It was just a standoff while I sat there and waited for him to either steal my food or walk away,” Rotar explained. He did go elsewhere eventually. But apparently, he just stuck around and lingered in the Costco parking lot until four or five o’clock.”
Moose tries the samples at Costco
After the moose was done with the shopping cart it wandered over to a tree to snack on its berries.
Eventually, it fell asleep near the entrance to the tire center.
Store manager Allen Arnold led a group of employees to alert drivers and customers to the moose.
“Not generally part of my job description,” Arnold said. “But today, you’ve got to adapt and overcome. He was quite friendly.”
Early in the evening it finally wandered off.
Running into a moose in a Costco parking lot is part of the adventure of living in Alaska.
