Don't malign the moose, please

So you look out the window and see a moose munching on those expensive plants you just arranged so carefully.

Question: Do you...

1. Shoot the moose?

2. Shoot it again and again, maybe once for each $50 you’ve lost in landscaping?

3. Call Idaho Fish and Game so the moose can be relocated to a safer environment?

4. Perhaps simply appreciate this magnificent animal, enjoy your great fortune in seeing it — always remembering that you moved into wild country, as opposed to the moose buying a condo in town?

Needless to say, the only possible answers are Nos. 3 and 4.

And frankly, our silly little quiz actually has some relevance at this time of year.

With snow in the mountains, plenty of birds — we have wild turkeys prancing right outside — and various types of other animals head down to lower elevations in search of food.

There are lots of them, too.

Nine of Idaho’s 11 species of large game animals reside here in the Panhandle, so none of us should be shocked to see deer, elk, and yes, the occasional moose.

“We keep a pretty close eye on them,” said Phil Cooper, wildlife conservation educator for Fish and Game. “Right now in Post Falls, there is a moose cow with two calves, and another cow with one calf.

“Once winter comes, these animals sometimes just can’t hang around up high, and they’ll venture down to the city edges, looking for something to eat.”

Cooper made a clear point that, in case you’re not a longtime resident of North Idaho, the creatures you might happen to see are almost certainly more afraid of you than you are of them.

In fact, this may give you a needless case of the willies, but Cooper said there are far more mountain lions around here than most people realize.

But you can relax.

“The reason we don’t see the mountain lions is because they’re so secretive,” Cooper said. “They want nothing at all to do with humans.”

Unfortunately for the animal population, housing developments spreading farther and farther into the wilderness are certainly going to mean more meetings between man and beast.

THE REASON we see those wild turkeys, and that there’s at least one moose lurking nearby, is because we moved to Twin Lakes Village — where these creatures far, far predate us.

And we’re lucky.

When the massive city of Bangkok, Thailand, spread out into marshland to accommodate its 8 million residents, rural homeowners discovered they’d landed in snake territory.

Nothing like finding a cobra in your bread bin.

A woman was bitten by a python that slithered up her toilet, and the city’s fire and rescue service answered nearly 32,000 calls for snake removals last year.

Eeeeek!

Fortunately, North Idaho has far fewer snakes and generally, wildlife that’s harmless but lovely to observe.

So why on Earth would someone complain about seeing the occasional moose or elk?

“People aren’t as tolerant as they used to be,” Cooper said. “They’ve seen enough animals that they’ve lost that sense of wonder.”

What a shame.

Hey, our neighborhood moose is welcome anytime.

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Steve Cameron is a columnist for The Press.

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