About twenty-five years ago, I had the occasion to see a Blue Moose in the mountains near Plaster Rock, New Brunswick, Canada. I had heard stories about these huge beasts from my father, but never knew anyone who had seen one as they are extremely rare. They were thought to be extinct over two hundred years ago because the early European settlers did not have the same respect for them as the native peoples and killed them off indiscriminantly.

They were easy to kill because their legs on one side were six inches shorter than on the other side, which made them well suited to the mountainous terrain. All you had to do was jump out from behind a tree, holler at them and when they turned around to run, they fell over and injured themselves, often fatally because of their tremendous girth.