An exhausted moose who had just crossed a Vermont lake drowned over the weekend after a group of people crowded around the animal to take pictures, scaring it back into the water.
Local wildlife officials said the moose had just swam across Lake Champlain from New York to South Hero in Vermont on Saturday – a journey moose don’t often survive – and was forced back into the water shortly after he made it onto land by people drawing close.
The animal likely retreated to the water because it was feeling threatened by onlookers and eventually succumbed to exhaustion, according Grand Isle County Sheriff Ray Allen.
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Fish and Wildlife Officer Robert Currier warned people to keep their distance from moose, telling local media that the animals usually respond to being threatened in one of two ways: “By either leaving the area or it’s going to respond with aggression and, obviously, we don’t want anyone to be a victim of the latter.”
“It is amazing to see these creatures, but they are wild animals and should be left alone/viewed from a distance,” Sheriff Ray Allen told The Islander.
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