An elk in Colorado has been wearing a physical weight around his neck for two years. He’s now free, thanks to some tenacious wildlife cops.
During a sheep count in the Mount Evans region in 2019, a wildlife official noticed a young bull elk with a hefty tire hanging over his neck. He knew locating the elk would be tough, and removing the tire would be considerably more difficult.
In a news release, wildlife officer Scott Murdoch observed, “The more these elk get away from people, the wilder they act.” “Over the last few years, that has absolutely been the case. This elk was tough to locate and much more difficult to approach.”
The right moment to remove the tire finally presented itself on Saturday night, after years of attempting to do so.
“I was able to quickly respond to a report from a local resident regarding a recent sighting of this bull elk in their neighborhood,” wildlife officer Dawson Swanson said in a press release. “I was able to locate the bull in question along with a herd of about 40 other elk.”
Swanson was able to tranquilize the 600-pound elk after getting a clear shot at him. Murdoch came shortly after, eager to help with the tire removal.
“Removing it was a challenge,” Murdoch added. “We couldn’t cut the steel in the tire’s bead, so we had to move it just so to pull it off.”
The saga of the bull elk with a tire around its neck is over. Thanks to the residents just south of Pine Junction on CR 126 for reporting its location, wildlife officers were able to free it of that tire Saturday.
Story: https://t.co/WHfkfPuAck
📸's courtesy of Pat Hemstreet pic.twitter.com/OcnceuZrpk
— CPW NE Region (@CPW_NE) October 11, 2021
The elk lost 35 pounds when the tire was removed, according to Swanson and Murdoch. Murdoch described the tire as “full of wet pine needles and grime.” “The debris in the tire was about ten pounds.”
Fortunately, the elk’s neck was not severely damaged by the tire, and he is expected to recover swiftly. “The hair had been rubbed off a little, and there was one little open wound the size of a coin or quarter, but it looked pretty fantastic,” Murdoch remarked. “I was a little taken aback by how nice it looked.”
Thanks to a few compassionate human neighbors, the elk is now back with his herd and feeling better than ever.
0 Comments