About ManiacMoose
They Call Me Maniac.
Born here. Raised here. And if you ever catch me south of Portland, assume I’ve been kidnapped.
I don’t do cities, I don’t do crowds, and I don’t do wildlife guides written by people who’ve never had a moose walk through their campsite at 2am. Too many people writing about Maine wildlife from behind a desk somewhere in Connecticut. That’s not this.
I’m a hunter, a fisherman, an outdoorsman — and I’ve spent my whole life in these woods. I know where the moose are before dawn. I know which bogs hold the biggest brook trout. I know what a fresh bear track looks like in the mud and how to tell it from a dog print without pulling out a field guide.
ManiacMoose is what happens when someone who actually lives this stuff decides to write it down.
So What Is This Place?
It’s a no-fluff wildlife resource for Maine — built by someone who’d rather be in the woods than talking about being in the woods.
You’ll find animal guides written from real experience, not copy-pasted from Wikipedia. You’ll find track identification, behavior breakdowns, where to actually find these animals in Maine — not just “northern forests.” And you’ll find the kind of practical knowledge that gets passed around hunting camps and over tailgates, not in classrooms.
If you want polished nature writing with fancy vocabulary, there are about a thousand other sites for that.
If you want to actually know your woods — you’re in the right place, bub.
Why Should You Listen to Me?
I wouldn’t know what to do with myself south of Portland. Too many people, too much pavement, not enough trees. I’ve been navigating these woods my whole life — the back roads, the bogs, the ridge lines, the river corridors. This isn’t research. This is just Tuesday.
The animals I write about? I’ve hunted them, tracked them, nearly been run over by them, and sat in the rain for hours waiting for them. That’s the difference between knowing about Maine wildlife and knowing Maine wildlife.
One More Thing — No Bullshit. Ever.
I know these woods inside out. But I don’t know everything, and I’m not going to pretend I do.
If something’s outside my personal experience, I’m not going to make it up, guess at it, or copy some garbage off the first website that shows up on Google. I’ll dig into the real sources — Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, peer-reviewed research, people who’ve spent their lives studying this stuff — and I won’t publish it until I’m confident it’s actually true.
You deserve accurate information. The animals deserve accurate information. And frankly, the Maine woods are too important to get wrong.
So if you ever spot something on this site that doesn’t add up — call me out. I’d rather be corrected than be wrong.
The Track Challenge
Think you know Maine’s woods? Prove it.
I built the Maine Track Challenge to separate the True Mainahs from the Tourists. Five tracks. No hints. Let’s see what you’ve got.
Fair warning — most people from away don’t make it past the third one.