the first musher to arrive at the checkpoint ... reported that he’d also had an encounter with a moose, one that was very much alive.
“I had to punch a moose in the nose out there. Oh my gosh,”
[two hours later, another musher encountered it]
the moose “became entangled with the dogs and the musher on the trail” before [the musher] dispatched the animal in self-defense.
...
Under the Iditarod’s Rule 34, if a musher kills an edible big game animal in defense of life and property, “the musher must gut the animal and report the incident to a race official at the next checkpoint. Following teams must help gut the animal when possible. No teams may pass until the animal has been gutted and the musher killing the animal has proceeded.”
AP:
In 1985, the late Susan Butcher was leading the race when she used her axe and a parka to fend off a moose, but it killed two of her dogs and injured 13 others. Another musher came along and killed the moose.