When a snowstorm hit Alaska on the evening of December 15, Tyra Bogert made her way to her sister’s house in case the power goes out. As she scrolled through TikTok with her niece, she noticed a notification from her Ring camera.
The camera, which was set up at her front door, had recorded a movement. Curiously, Bogert clicked on the notification and watched live as an event happened that happened “one in a million.”
An elk passed by and shook his body, almost like an angry dog, and then his antlers “popped” off his head. The animal, visibly startled by what had happened, quickly ran away.
Bogert couldn’t believe what she had observed in real time.
Her husband Chance, who was at work, called right after to ask who was at the door, she said.
“And I’m like, ‘Dude, you’ve got to see for yourself! You’re going to be so surprised. I don’t want to ruin it. ‘”
Bogert said her brother told her to post the video because he had never seen anything like it on screen before.
“He says, ‘I don’t think there’s a video of an elk shedding its antlers and that they were both dropped at the same time… I don’t think that was ever recorded. ‘”
She posted the video on TikTok and Facebook, where it instantly went viral. It had more than 18 million views on TikTok on Thursday.
Bogert lives in a town called Houston, about an hour and a half north of Anchorage. She says she and her husband moved into their house in 2020 and got the ring camera in 2021 for “security reasons,” but in the end they mostly shot footage of local wildlife.
“We’re pretty far out there. We’re not like a suburban community or anything,” she said.
Bogert said she comes from a family of avid hunters and her husband’s brother will help them assemble the 50-inch rack from the video.
She said she loves how often she sees moose in her home and she is thrilled that so many people enjoyed her video. Many people told her that they didn’t even know that moose had lost their antlers.
“They say, ‘Oh my god, I didn’t even know that moose did that at all and what do you think? You can just shake your head and the antlers fall off? Doesn’t that have to be like fighting or scratching a tree? ‘” she says. “It’s pretty crazy how many people simply don’t know anything about elks.”