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Alaska man killed in moose attack was trying to take photos of newborn calves, troopers say
A 70-year-old Alaska man who was attempting to take photos of two newborn moose calves was attacked and killed by their mother, authorities said Monday.
The man killed Sunday was identified as Dale Chorman of Homer, said Austin McDaniel, a spokesperson for the Alaska Department of Public Safety.
The female moose had recently given birth to the calves in Homer.
“As they were walking through the brush looking for the moose, that’s when the cow moose attacked Dale,” McDaniel said.
The attack happened as the two were running away, he said. The second man, who has not been publicly identified, was uninjured.
That person did not witness the attack, so authorities cannot say if the moose killed Chorman by kicking or stomping him, or a combination.
Medics pronounced Chorman dead at the scene. The cow moose left the area, Alaska State Troopers said in an online post.
The Anchorage Daily News reported that his son, Nathan Spence-Chorman, wrote on social media that his father “died on his property, tromping through the woods with a dear friend, in pursuit of a great photograph.”
“Dale was highly experienced around wildlife. He was intimately familiar with nature, and had no naivete about its danger. This was not a hapless fool stumbling into danger — this was a person who went out looking for a great photo, knowing the risks, and got caught in a dangerous moment,” Nathan Spence-Chorman wrote, according to the newspaper, adding: “The moose, obviously, is not at fault.”
Mark Thiessen / AP
In 1995, a female moose stomped a 71-year-old man to death when he was trying to enter a building on the campus of the University of Alaska Anchorage. Witnesses said students had been throwing snowballs and harassing the moose and its calf for hours, and the animals were agitated when the man tried to walk past them. That moose was killed by wildlife officials.
There are up to 200,000 moose in Alaska, a state with a human population of about 737,000.
The animals are not normally aggressive but can become so if provoked, according to the state Department of Fish and Game’s website.
A cow moose will become very protective over young calves and will attack humans who come too close, the department says.
“Calving season for moose is the time when you definitely want to give them extra space,” McDaniel said. “Cow moose with calves are going to be some of the more aggressive moose you’re going to come in contact with.”
People should not spook the animals or get between a mother and her calves, he said.
“Those moose will become unpredictable and work to protect their calves at any cost,” McDaniel said.
The largest of the deer family, a small adult female moose can weigh up to 800 pounds, while a large adult male can weigh twice that, according to Fish and Game. The animals can stand almost 6 feet tall.
Last September, a moose attacked and injured a woman and her dog in Colorado. Authorities said the cow moose headbutted the woman and stomped on her multiple times. Just days before that, a moose in Colorado charged and trampled a hiker whose dog started barking at the animal while walking along a trail.
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Bela Karolyi, the charismatic if polarizing gymnastics coach who turned young women into champions and the United States into an international power, has died. He was 82.
A spokesperson for USA Gymnastics confirmed to CBS News by email that Karolyi died Friday. No cause of death was given.
Karolyi and wife Martha trained multiple Olympic gold medalists and world champions in the U.S. and Romania, including Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton.
Ron Jenkins/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
“A big impact and influence on my life,” Comaneci, who was just 14 when Karolyi coached her to gold for Romania at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, posted on Instagram.
The Karolyis defected to the United States in 1981 and over the next 30-plus years became a guiding force in American gymnastics, though not without controversy. Bela helped guide Retton — all of 16 — to the Olympic all-around title at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles and memorably helped an injured Kerri Strug off the floor at the 1996 Games in Atlanta after Strug’s vault secured the team gold for the Americans.
Karolyi briefly became the national team coordinator for USA Gymnastics women’s elite program in 1999 and incorporated a semi-centralized system that eventually turned the Americans into the sport’s gold standard. It did not come without a cost. He was pushed out after the 2000 Olympics after several athletes spoke out about his tactics.
It would not be the last time Karolyi was accused of grandstanding and pushing his athletes too far physically and mentally.
During the height of the Larry Nassar scandal in the late 2010s — when the disgraced former USA Gymnastics team doctor was effectively given a life sentence after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting gymnasts and other athletes with his hands under the guise of medical treatment — over a dozen former gymnasts came forward saying the Karolyis were part of a system that created an oppressive culture that allowed Nassar’s behavior to run unchecked for years.
Still, some of Karolyi’s most famous students were always among his staunchest defenders. When Strug got married, she and Karolyi took a photo recreating their famous scene from the 1996 Olympics, when he carried her onto the medals podium after she vaulted on a badly sprained ankle.
Despite losing his boxing match to Jake Paul, Mike Tyson in a social media post Saturday said he had “no regrets” to getting “in ring one last time.”
The boxing legend was defeated by social media star Jake Paul in a highly anticipated fight on Friday night with an age difference of over three decades between the two contenders.
Netflix said Saturday that 60 million households worldwide tuned in to watch the match. The two fighters went eight full rounds, with each round two minutes long. Paul defeated Tyson by unanimous decision and the 27-year-old upset boxer and 58-year-old former heavyweight champion hugged afterward.
Paul was expected to earn about $40 million from the fight, and Tyson was expected to take around $20 million for the fight, according to DraftKings and other online reports.
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Tyson said on his social media that “this is one of those situations when you lost but still won. I’m grateful for last night.”
The fight almost didn’t happen after Tyson experienced an ulcer flare-up while on a plane in March. He addressed his illness Saturday, writing that he “almost died in June.” He said he had eight blood transfusions and “lost half my blood and 25lbs in hospital and had to fight to get healthy to fight so I won.”
Tyson retired from boxing in 2005 after a 20-year career. He last fought in a 2020 exhibition match against former four-division world champ Roy Jones Jr.
“To have my children see me stand toe to toe and finish 8 rounds with a talented fighter half my age in front of a packed Dallas Cowboy stadium is an experience that no man has the right to ask for. Thank you,” he said.
Alex Sundby and
contributed to this report.
