Minnesota: Moose Rescued from Hungry Jack Lake After Falling Through the Ice

MINNESOTA -- A young female moose was crossing Hungry Jack Lake early Monday morning when she suddenly fell through the ice.

Forrest Parson, owner of Hungry Jack Lodge, reported the incident after he witnessed the 650-pound moose fall through the ice as he was enjoying his morning cup of coffee. Parson reportedly called the local DNR and volunteer fire department for help.

Ice rescuers included Jim Morrison, Gunflint Trail Volunteer Fire Department Chief, Bob McCloughhan, and Dave Seaton of Hungry Jack Outfitters. Seaton was the first on scene and carefully towed a canoe out to where the moose fell through the ice.

Seaton spoke with 90.7 WTIP radio about the incident where he stated, “We had to try a few different angles.”

Using a tow strap, they were able to pull the young cow out of the water and onto more stable ice.

“It took a while, a little encouragement, before she caught her breath and was able to walk herself to shore.”

It is believed that the young cow may have been chased by a wolf pack early this morning and out onto the ice.

(Fox21 - April 10, 2017)

Idaho: Family surprised to find a moose in their basement

IDAHO -- It was a wild morning for a family in Idaho when they walked into their basement Sunday and discovered a moose staring at them.

The female animal had fallen into a 3-foot deep window well and made her way into the home, according to Lt. Steve England of the Hailey Police Department.

“The window opened like a door and the latch was loose,” England told EastIdahoNews.com. “The moose pushed her way through and, amazingly enough, the window didn’t even break.”

A family member called the Hailey Police Department and officers, along with Blaine County Sheriff deputies and Idaho Fish and Game officers, went to the home.

“They put some furniture and mattresses around the room to kind of keep the moose enclosed in one area of the basement,” England said. “Fortunately she wasn’t hurt and remained pretty calm.”

By the time Fish and Game officers arrived, the moose had been in the basement nearly two hours. The animal was tranquilized and then all of the officers helped carry it up the stairs and out the front door.

“Fish and Game then woke her up and it went on its way,” England said.

England declined to release the address of the home, but said it’s in the Della View subdivision near the Big Wood River. Wildlife are often spotted in the area, especially over the past few weeks.

“We’ve had a lot of wildlife this winter, because of the heavy snowfall,” England said.

The moose caused minimal damage to the home, but created a lifetime of memories.

“The family will be telling this story for years,” England said.

(KSL - Jan 30, 2017)

Canada: Newfoundland wildlife officers take baby moose for a ride

CANADA -- Wildlife officers had an unusual ride-along in one of their trucks after finding a baby moose under a stairwell in St. John’s, N.L.

The animal became trapped in an outdoor porch stairwell of a home in the city’s east end after getting separated from its mother.

Wildlife officers removed the moose, but police say he was too small to ride in the bed of their truck. So, he hopped into the back seat.

The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary joked on Twitter that officers caught the “little fella trying to break into an east end home” and then placed him in the car where “this babe is riding shotgun (well not quite).”

Police posted pictures of the moose in the stairwell and curled up at the officer’s feet in the wildlife truck, adding that the animal’s mother was not be found.

(Global news CA - May 31, 2016)

Man Saves Baby Moose From Drowning, Reunites Her With Mom

ALASKA -- Logan Snyder might not consider himself to be a hero, but there is no better word to describe him.

While out for a boat ride on a river near his home, the Wasilla, Alaska native spotted a furry brown mound cresting the water ahead of him. At first, Snyder thought it was just one of the many beavers living there, but he soon learned there was much more beneath the surface.

"As I got closer, it didn't dive, which is what a beaver always does. So I idled my boat and started looking at it, and I was like 'What the heck?'" Snyder told The Dodo. "Every once in a while I could see an ear come up, and I thought 'That's a moose calf!'"

The tiny animal, likely just a few days old, had somehow fallen into the narrow waterway and was struggling to stay afloat with only her nose breaching the surface. Along both sides of the river, the bank rose sharply, making it all but impossible for the moose calf to climb out.

About 200 feet away onshore, Snyder could see the calf's mother watching as he neared her baby.

Given how protective moose parents are, he was wary that she might become aggressive if he tried to help — but that was a risk he was willing to take.

"I could tell this thing was just gasping for air, so I brought my boat next to her, grabbed her and scooped her up," said Snyder. "I set her on the bow of my boat, and she just lay there for a long time. She was shaking real bad and coughing up water."

After several minutes passed, the moose calf stood up and approached Snyder, showing what could be described as a gesture of gratitude to the much larger stranger who had just saved her life.

"She was tiny. The whole moose was the same size as the five-gallon gas can I have in my boat. She probably only weighed 25 pounds," he said. "She walked over to me and started nuzzling me with her nose and I petted her a little bit."

The mama moose waiting for her baby

Although she was now safe from the watery fate that awaited her had help not arrived, Snyder knew the rescue was not yet complete.

"I idled up next to the bank, which was about four feet tall, and placed her up on top of the bank on the same side as her mom," he said. "She started walking towards her, and I got out of there so she would feel safe."

Snyder snapped one last photo of the little moose he rescued as she prepared to reunite with her mom — a moment made possible thanks to him. But the way he sees it, he was the lucky one:

"I'm glad I was at the right place at the right time."

(The Dodo - May 22, 2015)

Three Alaskan men arrested after they surrounded a baby moose and kicked, punched, and stabbed it to death

ALASKA -- Three men have been accused of stabbing a young moose to death at a park in Alaska's largest city, and police said witnesses reported seeing the men punching the animal and walking away.

The men were arraigned Wednesday in the death of the yearling moose near a bike trail in Anchorage's Russian Jack Springs Park. All three were arrested on charges of animal cruelty, wanton waste of big game and tampering with evidence.

Three witnesses called police shortly before 7:30 p.m. Tuesday to report the moose under attack. Assistant District Attorney Daniel Shorey, in charging documents, made no mention of a possible motive.

  

Witness Don Brooks told officers he saw three men in a swampy area "punching" a moose. He yelled at them to stop, and saw them walk toward a park chalet, he said. Two others gave similar accounts to police.

“The witnesses say they observed the three men jumping on the moose, kicking it and stabbing it with a large knife,” a statement from APD says.

Police found the after the yearling moose was found with “several lacerations” and “large tufts of hair pulled from its body.”

"There were multiple deep cuts that appeared to be slashing cuts on the left ribcage as well as apparent puncture wounds to the neck," Shorey wrote.

Police found the three suspects near the park chalet and saw blood on one man's jacket, Shorey wrote. None of the men were carrying knives.

Police using a dog tracked the men's route from the chalet toward the area where they had been seen by witnesses.

The police dog, a K9 named Diesel, alerted officers to a large concrete pipe and police found three knives inside: a hunting knife in a brown leather sheath, a serrated "dagger style" knife in a black leather sheath and a multi-tool in a leather sheath, Shorey said. The hunting knife had blood on it.

The suspects, Johnathan Candelario, 25, James Galloway, 28, and Nick Johnston, 33, were handed charges Wednesday in an Anchorage courtroom. The men covered their faces with legal documents to avoid being photographed and were told their rights and that they would be represented by the Alaska Public Defender's office.

Bail for Candelario and Johnston was set at $10,000 with an additional $2,500 cash performance bond and a requirement for a third-party custodian. Bail for Galloway, who has no criminal convictions in Alaska, was set at $5,000.

Candelario and Johnston told District Judge Alex Swiderski they did not have jobs, assets or phones. Galloway said he had earned less than $600 in the last six months and also had no phone. Swiderski appointed the public defender's office to represent them.

 

 

A local charity recovered the remains of the moose to salvage the meat, police spokeswoman Anita Shell said.

Moose are a common sight in Anchorage, and on rare occasions have charged at humans. The massive animals, however, generally coexist peacefully with humans and their pets.

Shell said she could not recall a moose attacked in the same way in her 25 years with the department.

"Certainly, people have defended themselves against moose if they're being trampled," Shell said. "But I've never seen anything like this."

“If the allegations are true, it’s highly disturbing and I’ve never seen anything like it in my 50 years of living here in Anchorage,” said Ken Marsh, spokesperson for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

(TwinCities.com - April 29, 2015)

Snowmobilers save moose from freezing to death buried under avalanche after spotting its snout and digging the animal out

ALASKA -- A moose buried by an avalanche on an Alaska mountain had its luck changed by three men passing on snowmobiles.

The three Matanuska-Susitna Borough residents were about 55 miles northeast of Anchorage when they passed a small hillside that had both ski and moose tracks.

When they returned an hour later, an avalanche had covered the tracks.

Marty Mobley says he saw something move in the debris —and was surprised when he inspected it closer alongside friends Rob Uphus and Avery Vunichich.

'It looked like a guy's arm at first because we were expecting to see a skier,' Mobley told the Alaska Dispatch News.

'But it was moaning and groaning and moving and we realized it was a moose, even though only his ears and some of its snout was sticking out of the snow.

He added: 'There was just enough of its snout sticking above the snow that it could breathe.'

Two of the men began digging while third stood as an avalanche lookout.

'It didn't even fight us,' Mobley told the Alaska Dispatch News. 'It was like, 'Help me. Help me.' It was totally docile and let us touch it. It just (lay) there.'

Then, after 10 minutes of digging, the moose began to move.

'It stood right up and towered over us, because we were in kind of a hole from the digging,' Mobley told the Alaska Dispatch News.

'It looked like the abominable snowman because its fur was so packed with snow and it looked at us, shook the snow off it, and off it went.'

The moose was at 'full steam,' he says.

'I am an animal lover, and I couldn't leave it there,' Mobley told the Alaska Dispatch News.
'Besides, we deal with a lot of avalanches and a lot of snow. That kind of karma is something we don't pass up.'

(Daily Mail - Jan 2, 2015)

Kayaker Rescues Stranded Moose Calf from Little Su River

ALASKA -- A moose calf stranded up to its chin in the Little Susitna River was rescued during the Memorial Day weekend, by a man who encountered the animal during an afternoon kayaking trip along the river.

According to Ashley Foster, the wife of IT technician Troy Foster, the couple was part of a kayaking group on the Little Su at about 3 p.m. Sunday when they came around a bend and spotted the calf.

“There were about seven of us in our group,” Foster said. “One of us shouted, ‘Hey, there’s a baby moose.’”

Upon closer inspection, it appeared that the calf had gotten its front hooves stuck in the muddy riverbed, at a part of the river behind some logs.

“You could tell that it just happened recently, but you could see he didn’t have much fight left in him,” Foster said. “He was cold, like he’d been fighting it for a while…he couldn’t have weighed 20, 30 pounds at the most.”

With Foster’s husband the only adult male in the party, the other kayakers made for the far bank of the river while he paddled upstream and landed on the same side as the calf. Larger moose tracks were visible on the bank, so the rest of the party watched for the calf’s mother.

“We had no idea where she was,” Foster said. “All of a sudden, we heard the trees rustle and she was there on the same side of the river as my husband.”

Despite the group’s fears that the larger moose would attack Foster, based on widespread reports of cows becoming combative near their endangered calves, it never did so.

“For five, six minutes she watched him save (the calf),” Foster said. “It was very surreal.”

Eventually, Troy was able to secure the calf with a rope and drag it free of the riverbed. He left it on shore and got back into his kayak, but the group didn’t immediately see the cow and calf reunite.

“She was probably scared by all of us, well, cheering,” Foster said.

Dave Battle, who works with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Anchorage, declined to make any specific comment on the Little Su rescue Tuesday afternoon. In general, he says, if people have ready access to professional help and the situation isn’t an emergency, they should request assistance when dealing with wildlife issues to avoid unforeseen consequences or injuries.

“They should definitely call Fish and Game, or wildlife troopers,” Battle said.

Safely home from their weekend trip, Foster says her husband weighed the risks before getting involved. In addition to carrying a gun, he also had backup from the rest of the kayaking party looking out for both him and the cow moose.

“He told me he’d never have done it if he were alone,” Foster said.

On balance, Foster says she’s glad the group intervened to save the calf.

“He would have died if we hadn’t rescued him,” Foster said. “You keep hearing about things like this happening to people, but I never thought it’d happen to us.”

(KTUU - May 28, 2014)

Montana: Law Enforcement searching for jerk who killed this moose and left it to rot

MONTANA -- Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks wardens are hoping for some help from the public in tracking down the poacher responsible for killing a moose along Schwartz Creek Road.

“Someone shot it and left it lay,” said FWP Warden Capt. Joe Jaquith. “We are hoping someone saw something and would be willing to call.”

Jaquith believes the 3- to 4-year-old moose was probably shot late Saturday evening or Sunday morning.

“It was just coming into the prime of its life,” he said.

Jaquith got the call at about noon from a couple of concerned citizens who spotted the downed moose about 200 yards off Schwartz Creek Road about a mile from the Miller Creek Road intersection.

Schwartz Creek Road runs between Miller Creek and Clinton.

Jaquith arrived on the scene a couple of hours after receiving the call.

It’s something he’s seen before.

“These occur more than you might think,” Jaquith said. “It’s a little disconcerting. We find these dead moose near a roadway where someone just stops, shoots and then drives away.”

It’s one of those cases that wardens need help to solve.

“There are some cases, especially these gun-and-run cases, that we rely on the eyes and ears of the public,” he said. “There had to have been a lot of people driving over that road that day.”

People might have seen something that didn’t seem quite right.

“If they put two and two together and realize they might have some information that would help us, we hope they will make the call,” Jaquith said.

People can get onto Schwartz Creek Road from Missoula, Clinton and the Bitterroot Valley. The route is popular during hunting season.

Jaquith encourages anyone with information to call 1-800-TIP-MONT (1-800-847-6668).

“If they want, they can remain confidential,” he said. “They don’t have to give their names. We will need some help to find the people responsible for this.”

(Missoulian - Oct 29, 2013)

Jerks kill super-rare (and sacred) albino moose

CANADA -- If history has taught us anything, it’s that if there’s a rare, special animal in the wild, some dumbass will eagerly shoot it. Unfortunately, history just repeated itself near Belle Cote, Nova Scotia, where three hunting buddies killed a special white moose that the locals had kept alive for years by the Mi'kmaq people.

Writes io9: This moose was known to the local Mi’kmaq people for years, but they refrained from killing it because they consider all white animals to be sacred…

Even hunters, aside from these clowns, don’t shoot albino animals for fear that it’ll bring bad luck — and despite the fact that it’s not illegal. These guys breached a kind of unwritten code of conduct that has also upset many in the hunting community.

 

Adding insult to injury, the three stooges posted their shots online, further pissing off the locals. As Mi’kmaq hunter Danny Paul told the CBC:

We are not to harm [these animals] in any way, shape, or form because they could be one of our ancestors coming to remind us of something significant that’s going to happen within our communities. It was so disrespectful having seen it put on the social media, and it’s been an outcry and our people are outraged.

This majestic sacred moose gets his head chopped off and then
dumped onto a trailer with the beer cooler - RIP beautiful moose

The hunters issued an apology and said they didn’t realize the significance of the moose. Although some are blaming the Department of Natural Resources for not protecting the albino moose, I think the blame lies with whoever said, “Wow! Something beautiful and unusual! Forget pictures — LET’S KILL IT!”

(Grist - Oct 18, 2013)

Related:

• First wolf seen in Kentucky in 150 years gets shot dead immediately

Anglers save baby moose on Big Hole River

MONTANA -- The baby moose looked like it was born that day, small and frail, about 25 pounds. Thanks to two fast-acting anglers on the Big Hole River, the little moose will live another day.

Karen Sciascia, a practicing gynecologist from Pennsylvania who has delivered thousands of human babies, and Twin Bridges river guide Seth McLean, were fishing the Big Hole this week when they encountered a cow moose with a calf.

The river was swollen and flowing fast. The two animals were looking for a way across.

“We were watching this adult female struggling back and forth, and we didn’t see a baby until we got close,” Sciascia said. “Mom kept pushing – the current was pretty swift. The mother bolted and took off across the river. She was trying to get across the main portion of the channel, and even she struggled.”

As Sciascia tells it, the mother made it across the swift river. The calf was soon to follow. It left its rocky perch and stepped into the water.

When it hit the current, however, the small calf was swept away. The force of the water sent it tumbling downstream.

“It was small and the river was swift,” Sciascia said. “We lost sight of the baby. It was hurtling downstream and was being pushed by the river. It was too small to ever fight the current.”

The cow looked on from the distant bank as the river carried away its calf. Sciascia and McLean set their raft into the current and raced downstream, beginning their own search for the newborn.

It wasn’t easy to spot, as small as it was. When they saw it, it was ready to go under for what they feared would be the last time. The clock was ticking.

“We found it with its little nose just above the water,” Sciascia said. “We got up alongside it and I just grabbed the little bugger. I scooped it up from the river under its front legs.”

A photo snapped in the moment will forever preserve the adventure – a fast river, great fishing, an inflatable raft and a dripping wet moose calf no bigger than a large dog.

“I tried to hold it out, not wanting to get my scent all over it, but it was basically limp,” she said. “It was breathing, and with my hand on its chest, I could feel its heart beating real fast.”

McLean turned the raft back against the current and rowed upstream. They reached the bank where the mother had disappeared into the woods, then reappeared at the sound of her bleating calf.

The small animal was crying. It sounded like a puppy, Sciascia said. She’d never heard anything like it. But then again, she’d never held a moose.

“When we last saw her, we were heading downstream,” she said. “The mother was heading toward it. She had come out of the woods and was heading toward her baby.”

Four Rivers Fishing Co. posted the story on its Facebook page Wednesday. Nearly 200 people had “liked” news of the rescue by afternoon, not to mention one cow moose and her calf.

“Having delivered so many babies, it was like every other day to me, though it was a different modality,” said Sciascia. “It was cool to be in the right place at the right time.”

(Missoulan - June 6, 2013)