Moose attacks and kills man who was trying to photograph newborn calves

A man trying to take a photograph of a pair of newborn moose calves was killed Sunday when the animals’ mother attacked him, Alaska State Troopers said in a statement.

>> Read more trending news

Dale Chorman, 70, a well-known local photographer, was pronounced dead at the scene, law enforcement officials said.

Chorman was with another man, who has not been identified, when the two came up on the calves. The calves’ mother — called a cow moose — had only recently given birth, according to wildlife officials.

“As they were walking through the brush looking for the moose, that’s when the cow moose attacked,” Austin McDaniel, a spokesperson for the Alaska Department of Public Safety, told The Associated Press on Monday. The moose chased the men as they were running away, McDaniel said.

Chorman’s son, Nathan Spence-Chorman, wrote in a statement shared by local media : “I know you’ve all loved his photos over the years. He loved sharing them with you.”

Chorman, a carpenter/builder who also was a naturalist and bear guide, lived in Homer for decades, the Anchorage Daily News reported.

He “was intimately familiar with nature, and had no naivete about its danger,” Spence-Chorman added in his statement . “This was not a hapless fool stumbling into danger — this was a person who went out looking for a great photo, knowing the risks, and got caught in a dangerous moment. The moose, obviously, is not at fault … she was just protecting her offspring.”

The incident happened on Chorman’s property, Tom Kizzia, a friend of Chorman’s, told the Homer News .

Kizzia said that the Chorman family “hope(s) that the cow moose is left alone” as “Dale would have been the first to understand” that the mother “was just doing what she needed to do.”

According to the Daily News, the moose and calves left the area after the attack.