Moose mothers with small calves are famously protective, and potentially very dangerous. Although, as it turns out, one was surprisingly passive when I rode past her during a very hard climbing session two weeks ago. She was on the paved shoulder, just outside the fog line, on a shaded corner and I didn't see her until I was past her and saw movement over my shoulder; I must have ridden past her nose within an arm's reach.  I was just inside the fog line and was distracted by high effort. I was told later she had two calves. It could have turned out worse.  Not appropriate social distancing. I'm grateful for her forbearance.

The two mothers with calves who were in the yard in the past two weeks were alert and watchful, but not showing any signs of aggression. Unlike this testy moose who was in the garden and didn't want to move on. Unfazed by airhorn and car horn. Suzanne was on foot in the driveway watering flowers, and I backed out a car to give her cover back to the garage after the moose, rounding the house on first arrival, cut off her escape.  

Moose may look ungainly, but they are agile when provoked, and this one was briefly pirouetting on back legs and front legs, more like a rodeo bronc or Lipizanner stallion. It was a surprise encounter and I didn't have time to reset the camera for higher shutter speed or frame rate, so I missed the most dramatic moves, or, perhaps, mooves.

Check out her ears. Ears flat and back are a diagnostic sign of impending aggression.

Single kick, soon followed by a double kick that flipped up clumps of grass:

Fast direction changes:

Assessing threat and unhappy about it:

And off again:

Later returned to the yard, calmer but still watchful: