{"id":149115,"date":"2025-11-19T23:35:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T23:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/149115\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T23:35:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T23:35:11","slug":"moose-stumbles-through-town-dragging-a-bizarre-object-from-his-antlers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/149115\/","title":{"rendered":"Moose Stumbles Through Town Dragging A Bizarre Object From His Antlers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, a moose made his way down from the foothills of Chugach State Park and into the city of Anchorage, Alaska. Everywhere he went, the moose turned heads.<\/p>\n

Not because he was a bull moose strolling through town \u2014 that\u2019s quite normal this time of year as temperatures drop \u2014 but because something large and black hung from his antlers, cables swaying wildly.<\/p>\n

Alaska Department of Fish and Game<\/p>\n

The first calls came into the Alaska Department of Fish and Game<\/a> from locals who\u2019d seen the moose but couldn’t tell what was stuck to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen we were actually able to get pictures of the moose with the object,\u201d Cory Stantorf, an area biologist for Anchorage with the Division of Wildlife Conservation, told The Dodo. \u201c[It] was a full-fledged internal frame backpack that was stuck on [his] antlers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alaska Department of Fish and Game<\/p>\n

Internal frame backpacks are meant to carry heavy loads during long hiking trips. This particular pack was empty, but its size posed a significant danger to the moose.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever there’s anything that hinders walking, seeing or feeding, then we do our best to intervene to remove that obstacle,\u201d Stantorf said. \u201cWhere you have roadways, slick streets, a dark moose, they need every option they have to see vehicles coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Getty Images\/andyKRAKOVSKI<\/p>\n

The large backpack blocked the moose\u2019s vision on his right side, making him vulnerable to oncoming traffic or other obstacles.<\/p>\n

Stantorf mentioned that this time of year, around the first week of December, bull moose shed their antlers. If the object hanging from his head had been small, the rescue crew could\u2019ve left the animal alone, knowing he\u2019d shake off the antlers in a few weeks.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, this backpack also posed a tripping hazard.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs that moose was walking, he was getting his foot stuck in between straps,\u201d Stantorf said. \u201cWhich doesn’t bode well if you’re trying to run away from a vehicle or you get spooked and you go taking off or try to run through the woods \u2026 I also don’t want him to step and fall and break a leg.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"clickAlaska’s News Source<\/p>\n

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game used a thermal drone to track down the moose, but he was deep in the woods, where a rescue mission would be difficult to carry out.<\/p>\n

During the following week, sightings of the frustrated moose continued rolling in. He shook his head, annoyed at the backpack in his space.<\/p>\n

Finally, the moose settled into a residential neighborhood for a meal. Stantorf and his team stealthily approached while the moose chewed his food and safely sedated him so they could remove the backpack.<\/p>\n

Alaska Department of Fish and Game<\/p>\n

Everything ran smoothly: The moose went down, several team members monitored his vitals as others removed the backpack. He received an ear tag so biologists like Stantorf can better understand his habits in the future.<\/p>\n

The team revived the moose, allowed him time and space to get his bearings and watched him wander away, a little lighter than before.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did see that moose that same evening,\u201d Stantorf said. \u201cAbout two blocks away from where we sedated him, he was standing on the side of the road there, feeding away.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Carpenter<\/a>Carpenter Refuses To Leave Deer Trapped In Ravine, So She Builds A Stairway Out”He knew we were there to help him.”<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last week, a moose made his way down from the foothills of Chugach State Park and into the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[1285,61,60,17371,84627,84626,3530,82,1284,1282,263,57534],"class_list":{"0":"post-149115","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-daily-dodo","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-moose","12":"tag-moose-antler-rescue","13":"tag-moose-rescue","14":"tag-sarah-ashley","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-standard","17":"tag-the-dodo","18":"tag-wildlife","19":"tag-wildlife-rescue"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}