Fact Check

Mother Moose

Photographs show a moose that had just given birth in the front yard of a house in Michigan.

Published Feb. 7, 2010

Claim:

Claim:   Photographs show a moose who had just given birth in the front yard of a house in Michigan.


REAL PHOTOGRAPHS; INACCURATE DESCRIPTION


Example:   [Collected via e-mail, February 2010]


Hello, boss I cannot come in to work today. There was a moose born on my front lawn and the Mom won't let me out of the house!!!!

Naubinway, MI, is about 40 miles west of the Mackinaw bridge in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Baby Moose 12 Hours Old - Born in the middle of downtown Naubinway, Michigan.

In my 33 years in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, I have never Seen a new-born baby moose. This one was not even a half Mile from our house. The mother picked a small, quiet Neighborhood, and had her baby in a front yard just off of US 2, At 5:30 am.

Allen and I were out bike riding when we came upon the pair. The lady across the street from this house told us she saw it being born. We saw them at 5:30 PM. So the little one was 12 hours old.

What an awesome place we live in to see such a sight.

GREAT FOR THE KIDS TO SEE!

Makes it really tough to use your front door!





 

Origins:   The above-displayed photographs from 2007 do capture, as described, a moose who had given birth to a calf earlier in the day in the front yard of a private residence. However, the event did not take place anywhere near Michigan, as claimed in the accompanying text — the second and third paragraphs reproduced above are fabrications that were tacked on to the original e-mail after it had been circulating for a while.

These pictures actually originated in Anchorage, Alaska. One of our site's message board members residing in that city recognized the house shown in these photographs as the home of a friend, who confirmed that the birth had taken place in their front yard:



YES this was RIGHT in front of my house! I took water out to the Momma moose later. They stayed for 2 days. Fish & Game advised to just "Enjoy ... she'll move along when she's ready." It was VERY cool.

Additional photographs taken in February 2010 show the same scene (sans moose) in wintertime.

Last updated:   28 July 2014

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.

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