I was lucky enough to spend about 15 minutes watching this Moose yesterday after work. He was hanging out alongside Highway 61 and thankfully was not on the roadway at all except to cross the highway one time. He seemed to be very mindful of traffic. Whenever he heard a car approaching on the highway he would retreat a few feet into the woods. Only 3 cars went by in the 15 minutes that I watched him and each time a car went by he did the same thing.
About 5 minutes elapsed between the the time the 3rd car passed and when he crossed the highway. During that time he was hanging out in the ditch taking an occasional drink from the marshy areas, his ears constantly moving as he listened to what was going on around him. When he crossed the highway he went immediately into the woods and wandered off.
It's always a treat to see these beautiful animals. I think we all have something we can learn from them. When given an opportunity to observe them you can quickly notice that many animals, moose included, move slowly and deliberately most of the time. They pay attention to every subtle nuance of their surroundings. Their situational awareness is something they depend on for survival and they only hurry when they have to. I think watching wildlife is a great lesson in slowing down. If we slow down, it's amazing how much more we can see and hear. In doing so, we enrich our experiences and strengthen our memories of those experiences.
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