Claim:   Photograph shows a moose poking its snout into a McDonald's drive-through window in Maine.

Status:   Real photo; inaccurate description.

Example:   [Collected on the Internet, 2005]

MEET McMOOSE, PHOTOGRAPHED OUTSIDE MADAWASKA, (AROOSTOOK COUNTY), MAINE, ACROSS THE ST. JOHN RIVER FROM EDMUNSTON, NEW BRUNSWICK, CANADA

Origins:   The town of Madawaska, Maine, has at least one McDonald's restaurant, and moose are known to inhabit the area, but the critter pictured above poking his snout into a drive-through window actually hails from an area several thousand miles away.

This photograph appears in the 2004 pictorial wildlife book Moose Views, where it is credited to Steve Kaufman, and it captures a curious moose at a McDonald's in the city of Homer, Alaska, not Madawaska, Maine.

Coincidentally, Homer, Alaska, was the setting for a series of McDonald's commercials aired during the 1990 Super Bowl (the conceit being that folks so far away from the rest of us couldn't care less who won a match-up between football teams from San Francisco and Denver — unless McDonald's piqued their interest by offering different low-priced specials depending upon who won the game).

Last updated:   20 March 2005

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  Sources:

    Brown, Tricia.   Moose Views.

    Portland, OR: Alaska Northwest Books, 2004.   ISBN 0-882-40587-X   (pp. 12-13).