Brian Watkins, an avid hunter who likes to practice his moose-calling skills during the week in the Chugach Range, caught an epic battle between two bull moose on camera earlier this week on the outskirts of Anchorage.
Watkins said he's called plenty of moose in the six years he's lived in Alaska. He's seen them up close before, but the two giant moose he called in Tuesday night were extra-memorable.
"That was the two biggest bulls, the closest I've ever been," he said in a phone interview Thursday.
Watkins, 28, managed to catch the two bulls fighting on the Powerline Trail south of the Glen Alps Trailhead. Such battles are standard practice for bull moose as they work to establish dominance in an area during mating season.
"Most people will say I'm crazy, or whatever, and I shouldn't be that close," he said. "But what I like to tell them is your 9-to-5 job is just living life, but when you experience a 1,500-pound animal fighting in front of you, that's actually living."