Moose tracks -- Chelmsford girl snags picture of unusual animal

Sarah Mann, 12, of Chelmsford, stands with a tree-mounted camera that captured a photo of a moose in her Moccasin Lane backyard. Sun/Bob Whitaker

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CHELMSFORD -- Miles Mann and his 12-year-old daughter Sarah wanted to get a photograph of a bobcat prowling in the back yard of their Chelmsford home, but instead they woke up Tuesday and found a photograph of a moose.

The Mann family lives on Moccasin Lane, a small cul-de-sac off Graniteville Road, not too far from Parker Middle School, and abutting the Crooked Spring Brook Reservation.

"We had bobcats in our yard and we were trying to take pictures of them, but we didn't have a good camera because it was at night," said Sarah Mann. "My dad wanted a better camera and I wanted to see the animals too."

Miles Mann said he paid about $250 for a camera that can be tied to a tree, and that will automatically take a photo, day or night, when something walks by. The camera has an infrared motion sensor.

"These cameras are very popular with people who are into hunting or like wildlife," he said. "I bought it for my daughter and we hooked it up outside."

The family checks the camera once a week.

In the first week, there was nothing but a picture of a dog. There was nothing the second week. Tuesday, at the end of the third week, there was a picture May 2 of a deer and a picture of a moose.

"A deer we expected, but I did not expect a moose running through the yard like that," Miles Mann said. "I personally have never seen a moose in the wild before."

Sarah said she hadn't either.

She said the presence of such a big neighbor won't

make her hesitate to play in the yard.

"They're really big," she said of moose. "But I don't care, because there's a lot of animals here and it's kind of exciting."

Sarah said the family is going to continue putting the camera outside.

"We're going to plug it in new places and try to find other animals," she said.

The moose is caught May 2 on Sarah Mann s infrared camera, out for a stroll behind her Chelmsford house. Sun photo courtesy Sarah Mann

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