Kristy Paniptchuk was riding on a boat along an Alaskan river when a moose running ahead and beside her boat caught her eye. She increased the speed of her boat to catch up with the moose, which crossed in front of the moving boat to the other side of the river, seemingly unbothered by the spectacle it was causing. Kristy shared the footage on social media and it quickly went viral across different platforms. Just in case you are wondering, the video is not fake. There is a perfectly logical explanation for what is happening in the video.
Can Moose Float and Run on Water?
The simple answer is both yes and no. Moose can float on water, but not the way it looks in the video. They can’t perform the miracle of running or walking on water, but they can float and swim. Despite their staggering size, moose are excellent swimmers who feel at home in the water. They can either submerge their entire bodies and swim underwater or float, only exposing their head. The moose Kristy captured on video runs across a shallow river a few inches deep. It could be a naturally shallow river or one frozen from the bottom upwards. “How?” you may ask. Ice typically floats on water when water bodies freeze, but exceptions exist. The phenomenon is popularly known as the analogous expansion of water. Ice, being less dense than water, will float on it. Fast-moving waters discourage freezing. But the water at the bottom of the river flows slower because of resistance from rocks and the surface at the bottom of the river, allowing ice to form beneath the rushing water. This natural phenomenon rarely happens, though. Another explanation is that flooding is behind the phenomenon. The river is frozen, but shallow flood waters flow downstream on the ice. If you look at the video carefully, you will notice no ice at the river banks, meaning Kristy did not shoot the video in winter when some rivers freeze. Consequently, the river is likely naturally shallow.
How Does the Boat Navigate the Shallow River?
Given the speed of Kristy’s boat, it is unlikely that she is powering it by hand. It also does not get its power from a propeller motor because this needs to be submerged in, at the very least, a foot of water to work. We also can’t see sails on the boat, which would have used wind power to move the boat. The only remaining explanation is that Kristy’s boat uses a jet motor. Jet motors are designed to work in stumpy and shallow waters where a propeller motor can’t operate.
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