Man-Moose

Joel Berger, ungulate specialist and field innovator:

Q. Why did you once dress up as a moose?

A. Legitimate scientific inquiry. We wanted to see how the Grand Teton moose reacted to the smell of bear scat. In Alaska, where the moose are very bear-savvy, if they smell it, they’ll manifest fear. But what about “naïve” moose? Well, you can’t just go up to moose and put odiferous bear poop patties before them. The outfit — and a tactic of acting like a moose — was a way of getting in close. We only did this perhaps four times, but I’ll never live it down. The media made a big deal of it. Letterman wanted me on his show. We didn’t go.