WINTER PARK, Colo. — A Boulder, Colorado, woman was severely injured but survived by playing dead when an aggressive moose attacked her Sunday in Winter Park.
“I laid on (the) ground, and I just thought, ‘You know, this is really a good way to die because I’m an animal lover,” Diane Israel, 61, told KCNC-TV, recounting the unprovoked attack by the lone cow moose in Colorado’s high country.
“She just saw me, and she just went nuts on me,” Israel told KDVR, recounting the roughly 15-minute assault that left her with spinal injuries, a shattered wrist and a deep gash above her ankle, which she said came from the moose’s hoof.
Israel, a world-renowned triathlete and regular early-morning hiker, told KCNC-TV that she forgot her headlamp on Sunday and literally stumbled upon the aggressive moose in the dark around 5:30 a.m.
“We just hit head-to-head, and she knocked me full force in the head,” Israel told the TV station. “She kicked me in my ankles, and she broke my back, and she broke my arm, and she just threw me around, and I got up which was stupid. I got up because I think I wanted to see if I was alive, and she just attacked me again.”
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Israel must undergo reconstructive surgery on her wrist and will likely have surgery on her spine but is expected to recover, KCNC-TV reported.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife confirmed to KDVR that Israel’s attack was the second human-moose encounter near Winter Park in less than a week. A 62-year-old man was attacked by a bull moose on Aug. 25 while running his dogs on a trail on the west side of Winter Park.
Diane's editor, Jenni, here. I want to share that I spoke with Diane last night and her spirit was good considering what she has been through. Surgery to begin repairing her hand happens on Friday. I will keep everyone here and on her other platforms informed as she heals. https://t.co/QgjaybAxv4
— Diane Israel (@DianeIsrael) September 1, 2021
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