{"id":75493,"date":"2017-09-28T16:39:10","date_gmt":"2017-09-28T22:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/moose-captured-on-video-battling-head-to-head-in-silverton\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T16:53:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T16:53:16","slug":"moose-captured-on-video-battling-head-to-head-in-silverton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/moose-captured-on-video-battling-head-to-head-in-silverton\/","title":{"rendered":"Moose captured on video battling head-to-head in Silverton"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=0e395584-9e9e-4d10-bc97-a0109055a561&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"1531\" height=\"1056\" alt=\"A screen grab from video taken by a visitor to Silverton who saw two moose fighting Tuesday near South Mineral Creek.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">A screen grab from video taken by a visitor to Silverton who saw two moose fighting Tuesday near South Mineral Creek.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_xclDR6HvKk\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/p><p>It\u2019s hard to find a significant other, even for moose.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, a lucky visitor in Silverton, Theresa Willingham Bush, captured a high-quality video of two big bull moose battling head-to-head for dominance and the right to reproduce.<\/p>\n<p>The rare sighting, which occurred in South Mineral Creek, just west of Silverton, is typical for this time of year, said Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesman Joe Lewandowski.<\/p>\n<p>From late-August to mid-October, moose (as well as deer and elk) are in rut season, otherwise known as mating season.<\/p>\n<p>Moose typically engage in two types of battling behavior: sparring, where the animals weighing as much as 1,600 pounds push each other back and forth; and fighting, which is more violent and can sometimes result in death.<\/p>\n<p>In Bush\u2019s video, one bull gets the other to the ground, the clear winner. The defeated bull regains his footing and is quickly run off.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt will probably go off, lick its wounds and try to make it till next mating season,\u201d Lewandowski said.<\/p>\n<p>Lewandowski said it\u2019s likely there is a female moose in the area, which triggered the fight.<\/p>\n<p>Moose were all but nonexistent in the state of Colorado mid-century. But in 1978, Colorado Parks and Wildlife transplanted 12 moose to northern Colorado, and ever since, populations have improved and expanded.<\/p>\n<p>CPW estimates there are almost 1,000 moose statewide.<\/p>\n<p>Lewandowski cautioned those who want to see moose in the wild, recommending people leave their dogs at home.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDogs are viewed as wolves by moose, and we\u2019ve had several instances over the past few years where someone is walking their dog, and a moose goes after the dog and the owner gets in the way,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd you don\u2019t want to be run over by a 1,200-pound moose.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lewandowski also recommended to keep a safe distance from moose and bring binoculars.<\/p>\n<p><em class=\"mwc_shirttail\"><a href=\"mailto:jromeo@durangoherald.com\">jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>is in full swing for the thousand-pound animal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":75494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,13,28,29,445,316],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-75493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-newsletter-lead","tag-video"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75493"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75508,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75493\/revisions\/75508"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75493"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=75493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}