One day in late May, driving in Anchorage to photograph wildlife, schoolteacher Amy Bragg had a one-in-a-thousand chance encounter with a trio of wobbly-kneed young strangers by the roadside—moose triplets.
Her rare run-in with the three calves resulted in several spectacular photographs of a moose family and a tale to tell.
Bragg, who teaches kindergarten in Anchorage, has been on summer break for the last several weeks. She hasn’t been sleeping in, though. She’s been getting up early each morning to take photos in the great outdoors. And on this particular day, she was scouting not for moose but baby great horned owls with her photographer friend.
Although they came up empty-handed, Bragg said the moose family she photographed later that morning was a “good consolation” prize.
Plenty of wildlife can be found in Anchorage, Bragg tells The Epoch Times.
“There are little pockets of wildlife within the city, and you don’t have to venture far out of Anchorage to find moose and bear, all kinds of birds.”
Driving within city limits, she came across a moose mother who had just given birth in a green wooded area. When she saw that the mother was with a baby, she pulled over.
“Then I saw that she didn’t just have one baby, but two babies in the grass, and then—oh, wow!—she had three babies,” Bragg said, adding the she kept her distance for a good reason. “I do not want to get charged by a moose. I know how protective moms are of their babies.”
Bragg said she called her husband to let him know she wouldn’t be home for a while; she’d encountered moose triplets once years ago and regretted not savoring the precious photo opportunity.
“I felt this was my second opportunity,” she said, “so I made sure that I stuck around and took a lot of pictures.”
As the mom munched unhurriedly on the grass, Bragg waited patiently by her car, her camera lens poised and ready, hoping for the perfect opportunity. She wanted all three calves and the mom in the same shot. Bragg says the towering mother noticed her but paid little heed. Finally, the perfect picture lined up.
“It’s very, very cool. It is a pinch-me moment,” she said. “Even living in Alaska, seeing hundreds and thousands of moose, it doesn’t get old.”
Bragg guesses the calves were no more than 24 hours old. With leg muscles still developing, they lay resting in the lush overgrowth. Sometimes they followed their grazing mother, trying to nurse.
“She would pick up her back legs and carefully place it, as to not to squish them as she was walking along in this marshy, wet area,” Bragg said. “It’s very sweet.”
Asked how rare moose triplets are, Bragg said she Googled it. “One out of every one thousand births,” she said.
“That doesn’t sound as rare as I find it to be. Living in Alaska for 40 years, I’ve only seen it now twice, and I’ve seen a lot of moose,” she added.
After several hours with the moose family, Bragg needed to go and reluctantly headed home. “I could have stayed there all day,” she said.
“I’m very lucky I have a great job that allows me the summers off and a beautiful spot to take pictures.”
