lost in melb.
10-12-2021, 02:16 PM
A years-long quest to remove a tyre from the neck of a bull elk as it wandered the Colorado wilderness has ended with US authorities sedating the animal and freeing it.
Key Points:
The elk was first spotted with the tyre in 2019
Officials had tried multiple times to track it down and free it
The animal's antlers had to be removed to slip the tyre over its head
https://live-production.wcms.abc-cdn.net.au/eb76767804c3279f98e9039349a655c9?impolicy=wcms_cro p_resize&cropH=1024&cropW=1536&xPos=340&yPos=0&width=862&height=575
"It was tight removing it," officer Scott Murdoch said.
"We would have preferred to cut the tyre and leave the antlers for his rutting activity, but the situation was dynamic and we had to just get the tyre off in any way possible."
The elk was first spotted with the tyre more than two years ago, during a wildlife survey.
An elk with a tire around its neck.
This image from 2019 was the first sighting of the afflicted elk.(Twitter: @CPW_NE)
But officers waited years for enough sightings to track the elk and free it.
"This elk was difficult to find, and harder to get close to," Mr Murdoch said.
Speaking in 2020 about how the elk may have wound up like that, Mr Murdoch speculated it would have become stuck while the elk was young, before it grew antlers.
https://twitter.com/CPW_NE/status/1447601850878812161
https://amp.abc.net.au/article/100532940
Key Points:
The elk was first spotted with the tyre in 2019
Officials had tried multiple times to track it down and free it
The animal's antlers had to be removed to slip the tyre over its head
https://live-production.wcms.abc-cdn.net.au/eb76767804c3279f98e9039349a655c9?impolicy=wcms_cro p_resize&cropH=1024&cropW=1536&xPos=340&yPos=0&width=862&height=575
"It was tight removing it," officer Scott Murdoch said.
"We would have preferred to cut the tyre and leave the antlers for his rutting activity, but the situation was dynamic and we had to just get the tyre off in any way possible."
The elk was first spotted with the tyre more than two years ago, during a wildlife survey.
An elk with a tire around its neck.
This image from 2019 was the first sighting of the afflicted elk.(Twitter: @CPW_NE)
But officers waited years for enough sightings to track the elk and free it.
"This elk was difficult to find, and harder to get close to," Mr Murdoch said.
Speaking in 2020 about how the elk may have wound up like that, Mr Murdoch speculated it would have become stuck while the elk was young, before it grew antlers.
https://twitter.com/CPW_NE/status/1447601850878812161
https://amp.abc.net.au/article/100532940