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By Rachael O'Connor
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A woman has gone viral after capturing the moment an enormous moose came right up to her door as a woman was trying to deliver her groceries.
Tara, 43, lives in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley in Alaska, and told Newsweek: "Moose are everywhere," and it's "very common" to have encounters with the wild animals.
And one particular moose, who she has named Helga, is a regular visitor to her home.
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"This specific moose has been coming to my yard since 2022—since she was a baby," she explained. "Her mom was hit by a car when she was about a year old and so she was on her own a little bit young. Moose are wanderers and they roam all over, so sometimes I see her multiple times a day and then sometimes I won't see her for months."
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But while she and Helga have formed a friendship of sorts, Tara warned "she is a wild animal and needs to be treated as such"—and a clip of Tara being cautious around her four-legged friend has now gone viral.
In a video shared to Tara's TikTok account @akhuntingrl21 on February 26, Tara greets a delivery woman at her door, and tells her straight: "I'm coming to protect you because I have a moose getting ready to walk around right here."
She hurries the woman inside—and just in time, as the camera then pans to the front porch, where the enormous animal has suddenly appeared and is sticking her face into the camera.
Tara then scolds the moose: "Girl, I'm trying to get my groceries delivered!"
She told Newsweek: "Moose are very unpredictable and can be very aggressive so you have to be pretty careful," but added she was "not frightened at all."
"She's just very curious and likes to come up and see what's going on. She walks up to my windows all the time and will stick her nose against my window screen, and I'll just sit there and talk to her for quite a while."
Tara explained she is often at home due to having autoimmune diseases that have left her without an immune system, and she and Helga have formed an easy friendship.
"When I see her, I will just sit and talk with her like she is a pet and so she comes and just stands and watches TV with me, and hangs out sometimes at the window when she's around.
"She has never been aggressive with me per se, but that's not to say that she wouldn't be. You still have to be very careful. I'll be honest, me being so close to her is not something I would advise anybody else to do!"
The Alaska-Yukon race of moose can weigh up to 1,600 pounds and up to almost 6 feet tall, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Despite their enormous size, they do have predators, including wolves, black bears and brown bears.
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TikTok users were awed by the video, which has been viewed over 9 million times, as one user admitted they "actually gasped and flinched" at the reveal of the moose, saying the animals are "just unimaginably huge if you've never seen them irl [in real life]."
Another laughed: "Imagine you're delivering groceries & the person opens the door and immediately says 'I'm coming to protect you'", as one asked: "Why did she have to jumpscare us so bad?"
"I fell out my skin when it was right in my face," one said, and as another put it: "The way I just YELPED out of fear when she was all up in the camera unexpectedly."
Tara admitted she was "overwhelmed" by the huge response to her video on TikTok, but says she regularly posts about life in Alaska and all its wildlife, as "I love to show where I live."
"Many Alaskans are extremely proud of our state. Our life here is very different than that of the lower [states]."
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