Among the pines, an apparition looms. Towering twice the height of a man, the beast
has the form of a moose, but is far bigger than any ordinary member of Alces
alces. Its coat is deathly white. Its
antlers spread wide as outstretched arms, pronged with over two dozen sharp
points. Is it a ghost? A spirit of the forest? Or perhaps it is merely an
ordinary- if impressive- natural mutation.
The first recorded sighting of Maine’s spectral moose
occurred in 1891 when hunting guide Clarence Duffy spotted the creature around
Lobster Lake. A year later it was seen again by a sportsman from New York who
shot at it, only to be chased down and nearly trampled by the vengeful beast.
Regular sightings occurred for several decades. Witnesses
described the moose as being white or light gray, with some even claiming that
it glowed dimly. It was said to be about 10-15 feet high at the shoulder, much
taller than the 8-10 foot shoulder height of an average moose. Its antlers were
said to be 10-12 feet wide and festooned with up to 22 prongs- much larger and
more complex than the 4-6 foot spread of a regular moose. Some eyewitnesses
claimed that the moose would actually vanish into thin air right in front of
them.
Some have suggested that the animal was albino. Albino moose
have indeed been documented many times, but their eyes are pink or violet,
while the eyes of the spectral moose are said to be brown. Albinism would also
not explain the creature’s tremendous size and enormous antlers.
Its possible the spectral moose had a condition similar to
the Kermode Bears of British Columbia, also known as Spirit Bears or Moksgm’ol
in the language of the Indigenous Kitasoo, a tribe of the Tsimshian people.
Although these bears have white fur, their eyes and skin do have pigment. The
white coloration is due to a recessive gene that stops melanin from being made
only in the fur, a condition called leucism (as opposed to albinism, in which
all pigmentation is lost in all tissues).
In fact, population of white moose are well-known to inhabit
the woods around the town of Foleyet in Ontario. Like the Moksgm’al, these
moose are not albino, instead possessing a recessive gene that makes their
coats a grayish-white. Its quite possible that Maine’s spectral moose had a
similar genetic condition, though again the creature’s alleged great size, and
its seeming ability to disappear into thin air have not been fully explained.
Perhaps eyewitnesses, startled by the sight of such an otherworldly-looking
animal, exaggerated their descriptions.
SOURCES
An article from New England Folklore about the Spectral Moose
An article from Mysterious Universe about the Moose
An article from Lumberwoods.org
A Smithsonian article about the white Moksgm'ol Bear
A 1911 article from the Sacramento Union about the Specter Moose
A post from legendsofamerica.com about the Specter Moose
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