Moose And Her Calves Decide To Spend A Day In This Family’s Backyard, Man Documents How It Went

Roland Rydstrom from Anchorage, Alaska, just had a few uninvited guests pop over to his place; last week, a mama moose and her two calves came over to his backyard. If that wasn’t enough, the moose liked Rydstrom’s grass so much, they decided to spend the day there.

The little buddies taste-tested everything from the chairs to the gates and when they decided the backyard was safe, they snuggled and even took a nap. At one point, their mama even gave them lunch. Rydstrom photographed the entire family trip from inside his home and when it was over, the man uploaded the pictures to the Internet. They immediately went viral, showing that people really needed to see something so innocent and cute during these hard times.

Image credits: Roland Rydstrom

The Alaska Moose is actually the state’s official land mammal and 175,000–200,000 of these hulking critters call The Last Frontier their home.

Interestingly, the Alaska moose are sexually dimorphic, making the males 40% heavier than females. Male Alaska moose can stand over 2.1 m (6.9 ft) at the shoulder, and weigh over 635 kg (1,400 lb). Female Alaska moose, on the other hand, are about 1.8 m (5.9 ft) at the shoulder and can weigh close to 478 kg (1,054 lb). This makes the Alaska moose the largest member of the deer family, are also the largest moose in the world.

Image credits: Roland Rydstrom

It’s not easy maintaining such a physique. Although moose are herbivores, they eat enormous amounts every day. In summer, for example, it will happily munch on 73 pounds of food a day, while in winter it’ll chew on about 34 pounds of scrumptious greens.

Image credits: Roland Rydstrom

“Note the smile on its face as it knocks over this pot. Sociopath.”

“And just like that, the marigold is knocked over and that baby pretends it didn’t have a thing to do with it…”

Image credits: Roland Rydstrom

Rydstrom made the right call by staying inside to photograph the moose family that visited him. Moose are generally not aggressive animals, but they can become incredibly dangerous when provoked. Female moose will not think twice to engage a person if she thinks they’re threatening her young.