Watch this moose shed its antlers with the shake of its head
Derek Burgoyne gets to witness the beauty of nature while working in the woods in central New Brunswick, but he never expected to capture this.
Using his drone, the Plaster Rock man was able to record the moment a bull moose shed its antlers.
Burgoyne, who has collected shed antlers since he was a kid, said this moment was something special.
"Never in my wildest dreams would ever imagine catching this on film," said Burgoyne.
"This is winning the lottery when it comes to wildlife photography for sure."
Capturing the moment
Burgoyne uses a drone for his job as a woods operations supervisor.
He was using the drone to survey a ridge of hardwood trees near Juniper, around 40 kilometres east of Florenceville-Bristol, when he came across three moose bedding in a clearing.
That's not entirely unheard of as there are a lot of moose in that area.
Burgoyne has captured a lot of footage of moose in the area, including cows with their calves and bulls fighting during the rutting season.
But he'd never captured a bull shedding its antlers, until now.
"As I'm hovering over this one, I zoom my camera down and just happen to click record," said Burgoyne.
"What they'll often do after being bedded in the snow is they'll shake their body to rid themselves of the snow and water. As he shook himself, I was recording, and you seen what happened."
Shed hunting
Bull moose shed their antlers every winter and grow new ones during the spring and summer months.
The sheddings are left behind and are highly prized by hunters.
Shed hunting has been a hobby for Burgoyne since he was a kid.
When he finds a pair of antlers he takes a picture of them as he finds them, a rule among shed hunters, then records a video for his YouTube channel and adds the antlers to his collection.
The newest addition are 17-point and have a 45-inch spread and were caked with ice and snow because of the freezing rain and ice pellets coming do in the area recently.
"I just have them as a collection here at the house," said Burgoyne.
"I'm actually kind of running out of room as it is to keep them here at the house, but I find a spot somewhere."
