Two bull moose found encased in ice in Alaska

Jeff Erickson | Facebook

In what appears to be a mating ritual gone wrong, two bull moose were recently discovered in Alaska frozen in the ice with antlers locked.

The discovery was made last week by Unalakleet resident Brad Webster. A member of the recovery team, Jeff Erickson, snapped a photo of the unbelievable find and posted it on Facebook. The post was quickly picked up by many others, including The Alaska Life.

“It appears that one of the brow tines (on the antler) penetrated and may have ended this (battle) fast, leaving the ‘winner’ with a 1000 lb headdress and probably pulled his head into the water where he drowned,” Erickson told CraigMedRed.News in an exclusive interview.

Yet, according to Erickson, he and a few friends happened upon the ice-locked moose, which were found in a slough behind a bible camp, completely by accident.

Jeff Erickson | Facebook

“A friend was checking out some buildings, steamhouse and kayak/canoe launch,” Erickson told CraigMedRed.News. “Another fellow who was on his first winter in Alaska and had never walked on ice. The slough was glare, see-through ice…so he decided to go for a slip-slide walk down the slough a little ways. Moose [antlers] were sticking out of water.”

Because the animals were encased in ice, their bodies have been preserved. Sunday at 4:10am, Erickson updated his Facebook page to let followers know the moose had been successfully dug out. He plans to save the antlers for an interesting mount. How he plans to do that waits to be seen. Hopefully, Erickson will share pictures of the final mount once it’s complete.