Young moose tranquilized and relocated
Yearling captured Wednesday morning in Thornton
A yearling moose sighted in Boulder County over the past several days has been tranquilized and relocated, according to an official from Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
Jason Clay, a public information officer with Colorado Parks and Wildlife, said the moose — a two-year-old cow weighing approximately 700 pounds — was seen in Boulder on Sunday and Monday, in Lafayette on Tuesday morning, and in Erie on Tuesday evening.
Colorado State Patrol Sgt. Troy Kessler confirmed the moose was also spotted near the intersection of Colo. 7 and Huron Street in Broomfield on Tuesday and officials closed the highway temporarily to allow the moose to cross.
The moose had wandered all the way east to Thornton by the time wildlife officials captured her on Wednesday morning. Witnesses reported that the moose’s demeanor was calm.
Clay believes the moose may have made her way down to lower elevations while foraging along Boulder Creek, as moose prefer to live near water, feeding on shrubs, grasses and other plants that thrive in those areas.
Young moose leave their mothers when they’re only a year old, and it’s not uncommon for inexperienced yearlings to get lost and wander away from their natural habitat, Clay said.
“We get about one or two moose a year that typically make their way down to the Front Range,” said Clay. “Most often, they’re these yearling moose — they’re following these riparian corridors down from higher elevations to lower elevations, traveling and eating their way down, and don’t realize they’re going into areas that are… not good moose habitat. Sometimes they make their way back up on their own, and sometimes we have to relocate them like we did today.”
According to Clay, when stray moose find their way into town, relocating them isn’t always a given — there are numerous variables that
determine whether relocating the animals is a safe or feasible option.
“As far as when and how we relocate, it’s very situational and dynamic, “Clay said. “This morning, we were able to get all of our resources there to successfully and safely relocate (the moose). Moose don’t do well with higher temperatures, so if we’re trying to tranquilize a moose during the hottest part of the day, that’s not a safe scenario. We try to avoid that if possible.”
Colorado Parks and Wildlife tweeted Wednesday afternoon that they successfully released the young moose into the Pike-san Isabel National Forest southwest of Denver.
“Everything went smoothly,” Clay said.
Moose are not native to Colorado, but transient moose have occasionally wandered into the state from the north since at least the 1850s. There was never an established breeding population in Colorado until wildlife officials reintroduced them here in the 1970s.
Several decades later, Colorado’s moose population is “doing really well,” Clay said.
There was also a moose attack today near Nederland, but Clay said that attack was unrelated to the moose that was relocated this morning.