This was anything but a wild moose chase.
A moose took in the small-town sights of Sterling on Monday morning, strolling down a street and paying a visit to someone’s front yard.
Jill Jarnis was driving with her 16-year-old daughter around 8:45 a.m. when she saw the moose near a red porta-potty at the Maypother baseball fields on Holden Road.
“We stopped and started taking pictures,” Jarnis said Tuesday. “It was really cool.”
The moose sauntered into the street and walked in front of a car stopped ahead of them before wandering into a front yard, calmly strolling past political signs on the lawn.
“It was very docile,” she said. “It just walked into the yard and was sniffing the bushes and stuff.”
Moose can be found in most of western and central Massachusetts and there are occasional sightings reported in the eastern part of the state, according to the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, known as MassWildlife.
Another moose sighting was documented in Sterling Tuesday morning. The Sterling Fire Department posted photos of the moose — which looked strikingly similar to the one seen on Holden Road — on the department’s Facebook page.
“How did the moose cross the road??” Sterling fire officials wrote on Facebook. “With the assistance of Firefighter Nickerson and Firefighter Finizio, of course! Today’s on duty crew provided some assistance to this moose while on Greenland Road this morning.”
Moose are big animals, typically standing up to 6 feet tall at the shoulder. Adult females can weigh anywhere from 500 to 700 pounds and males can weigh upwards of 1,000 pounds.
Moose are most active at dawn and dusk and their breeding season runs from September to October, wildlife officials said.
Motorists should be particularly alert at night during the fall breeding season and during the spring when yearling moose are driven away by their mother.
“Moose will step out onto a roadway without showing the slightest concern for oncoming traffic,” the MassWildlife website states. “The dark body is difficult to see and their eyes are much higher than those of white-tailed deer, so are often not reflected back from headlights. Because they are so heavy and have long legs, the body often will come through the windshield and onto the driver, making collisions extremely dangerous. Swerving to avoid a moose can be equally dangerous, so please drive slowly and hit your brake if you see a moose.”
If you see a moose in a densely populated area, you can contact the nearest MassWildlife District Office or the Environmental Police. The Environmental Police Radio Room can be reached 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 1-800-632-8075.
Emily Sweeney can be reached at emily.sweeney@globe.com. Follow her @emilysweeney and on Instagram @emilysweeney22.