Girl plays with six-foot moose

Vanessa Gibson has nurtured Jack since he was three days old so the Alaskan moose is now fiercely protective of his ‘mum’. The 23-year-old and her three-year-old friend play tag and take walks around the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center in Portage. ‘Many people do not understand my relationship with him. I want everyone to know that my relationship with Jack is very special and unique,’ said Vanessa, who befriended Jack when he was given a 20 per cent chance of survival in 2008. ‘When I first met Jack, he was 11kg (25lb), three days old, had a gnarly bite mark on his right hip and a fracture above his right front knee,’ Vanessa added. Spending a sleepless night with the young moose in a barn on the property, Vanessa fed Jack every four hours with formula milk. ‘As I grew attached to him, he also grew attached to me and never wanted me to leave. As I closed the door of the barn one afternoon after his feeding, to begin to walk back to work, I heard him cry at the door and kick it with his hooves,’ she said. ‘I spent every night of that summer with Jack tending to his needs and his leg. When he was ready to be moved from the barn to a cabin, I put up a tent outside to be near him, but he always slept outside my tent. ‘I’m at the centre from May to August each year but, after nine months of being gone, it shocks me how much he remembers my voice. When I open the gate, he can’t get to me fast enough and rubs his face all over me.’