Have you ever been near a moose? I almost hit one when it charged out of the bush while I was diving a backroad.
It swerved at the last minute and ran alongside my car for about 10s. All I could see out the side window was its legs, felt like being next to a dinosaur.
You meet elk in the woods here in Norway occasionally. You don't even need to be far from the centre town.
I was walking in the hills above Drammen one midsummer night and found myself suddenly about two metres from one, not sure which of us was the most surprised; we stared at each other for a few moments and then it lumbered off through the woods.
> You meet elk in the woods here in Norway occasionally.
Those are moose not elk, the Norwegian word elg translates to moose in english. Elk is a species of large North-American deer (hjort). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elk
The Irish elk, now extinct, was quite an impressive sight, with antlers wider that it was tall.
The Irish elk stood about 2.1 m (6 ft 11 in) tall at the shoulders and carried the largest antlers of any known deer, a maximum of 3.65 m (12.0 ft) from tip to tip and 40 kg (88 lb) in weight. For body size, at about 450–600 kg (990–1,300 lb) and up to 700 kg (1,500 lb) or more, the Irish elk was the heaviest known cervine ("Old World deer"); and tied with the extant Alaska moose (Alces alces gigas) as the third largest known deer, after the extinct Cervalces latifrons and Cervalces scotti.
It was not just native to Ireland, but many skeletons were found preserved in Irish peat bogs. The Irish elk had a far-reaching range, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the West to Lake Baikal in the East.
Yes, in Anchorage, Alaska, just sauntering around like it owned the place. And they are indeed much larger than elk. Now that you mention it, I’m not sure even Australia has anything as crazy as moose.
It swerved at the last minute and ran alongside my car for about 10s. All I could see out the side window was its legs, felt like being next to a dinosaur.