2024-01-01 21:07:41
GEORGETOWN, Minn. — You can tell it’s him and not just any old moose. Rutt, the famous “moose on the loose”, has a particular little notch in his ear, three points on his right antler and what his fans call white “leg warmers” on all four of his legs.
Rutt was most recently spotted in Georgetown, Minnesota, about 20 miles north of Fargo, on Saturday, Dec. 30. So why do we know this and why does anybody care about this particular moose? Because he was first spotted in Iowa, and that was strange.
“You don’t usually see moose in Iowa, so that’s what sparked things,” said Brenda Johnson, a self-proclaimed moose lover and administrator of the
Facebook page that now tracks Rutt,
a name that Johnson said people, including the DNR, started calling him. It’s a reference to
a moose character from the Disney movie “Brother Bear”.
The Facebook page has amassed more than 50,000 followers from all around the country and across the world with fans in Finland, Germany and England.
There is even a
coloring and activity book, inspired by Rutt, now available on Amazon.
A page from the coloring and activity book inspired by Rutt the Moose, now available by Hot Lava Kids on Amazon.
Hot Lava Kids
“Things really blew up around Thanksgiving,” said Johnson, who said she started receiving calls from journalists from the
,
and the
“It was crazy,” she laughed, adding that she thinks people have grabbed onto Rutt’s story because it’s a feel-good thing. “With everything that’s been going on in the world today, this is just fun,” she said.
This map shows Rutt’s confirmed sightings throughout Minnesota during his journey “back home” to moose country after likely getting lost too far south.
Map by Michelle Pip
Johnson said the running theory as to how Rutt ended up so far south is that while he would have been born further north in moose country, he likely got lost after leaving his mother when he turned one year old this past summer. The DNR has assessed his age now at a year and a half by the size of his antlers.
“So he could have been lost, and then rutting season came,” said Johnson, “and then maybe got mixed up and went too far south. The DNR says he’s healthy, he’s just lost.”
For the past couple months,
“We saw this massive thing running across the field,” said Joe Olson, who was driving in between Felton and Borup, Minnesota on Dec. 23. Olson, who hadn’t even heard of Rutt’s famous adventures, pulled over to take photo. “He saw me, so he just stopped and stood there for a couple minutes before taking off again.”
It wasn’t until a week later, while showing the photo of the moose to a relative, that he learned of “some famous moose” and his journey back home.
“So I post the photo on that (Rutt’s) Facebook page to see if it was him, and everybody started responding. I couldn’t believe how popular this moose was,” said Olson, laughing. “Now I’m a fan.”
Freezing rain and treacherous roads didn’t affect Rutt’s holiday travel, as the young bull moose continued his way northwest towards the Minnesota-North Dakota border. And while he has made it back to what is considered “moose country”, his final destination is unknown. It could depend on whether he meets himself a nice cow moose along the way.
“The DNR does think he’s looking for a girlfriend,” said Johnson, who says it may become trickier to track Rutt once his antlers fall off in the next couple of months. But she has high hopes for him in 2024.
“I would love to see a picture of him with somebody else,” said Johnson. “He’s been alone for at least three months that we know of, so it would be wonderful to see a picture of him with another moose.”
Paula Quam joined InForum as its managing digital editor in 2019. She grew up in Glyndon, Minnesota, just outside of Fargo.
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