The Most Dangerous Animal on the Alaska Highway

There are many animals along the Alaska Highway that can cause you serious injury or even kill you. Grizzly bears can be deadly, and the black bears in the area around the Alaska Highway are considered some of the most dangerous black bears in the world. Bison have been known to gore people. Even wolves will sometimes attack and kill a person. But the animal some consider the most dangerous along the Alaska Highway, other than humans, is one you might not expect: the moose.

Moose attack more people every year than bears and wolves combined. The only wild animal that attacks more humans across the world is the hippopotamus. While injuries inflicted by moose are generally not severe, this does not mean that they cannot seriously injure or kill

a person. In 1995, a moose on the University of Alaska at Anchorage campus stomped a man to death. An Alaskan wildlife biologist has been widely quoted as saying that “the best practice around moose is to go away around a moose. Assume every moose is a serial killer standing in the middle of the trail with a loaded gun.”

It’s not just a moose you encounter while hiking or outside that is dangerous. Moose also pose a danger to drivers. The average moose stands five to six and a half feet tall at the shoulder; like their smaller and more common deer relatives, many deadly car accidents every year are the result of moose-car collisions. One study estimated that one in a thousand Alaskan commuters would be involved in a moose-car crash in any given year. There aren’t any studies on moose-car collisions on the Alaska Highway, but one only needs to see a single moose-car accident to realize that it is not a collision the car is likely to win.