Moose Meets Match Lumbers Through Lake City, Takes Officer For Ride Before Succumbing To Captors

A rambunctious moose ambled through downtown Coeur d’Alene on Monday, tossing a game manager to the ground before being tranquilized and captured.

Idaho Fish and Game officer Paul Alexander was taken to the hospital with a gash on his head. He was treated and released.

The quarter-ton beast - a yearling - died on its way to Priest River, where it was to be set free.

“Moose are unpredictable to begin with,” said Steve Narolski, a conservation officer. “And with development being raised in their traditional range, the less experienced animals get into trouble.”

A common sight in North Idaho’s wooded areas, moose rarely wander into population centers. This one, however, was first spotted over the weekend after it wandered all the way to Tubbs Hill, near The Coeur d’Alene Resort.

By Monday, the animal had wandered several miles across town, eventually stopping in a field north of Appleway, one of the city’s busiest commercial strips.

On her way to the mailbox Monday morning, resident Joyce Kammeyer spotted a construction worker chasing the shaggy mammal through thick brush beside her house. He shouted for her to call Fish and Game. “I was kind of panicked,” she said. “I couldn’t find the number and I didn’t want to call 911.”

When she finally got through, game workers were surprised at the animal’s new location near a video store.

“I said, ‘I think he’s on his way to Hastings!”’ Kammeyer recalled.

Game managers arrived and shot tranquilizer darts into the animal. The moose fell over and four officers rushed in, carrying ropes.

They threw their arms around its neck, but the groggy moose suddenly shot up and scampered off, with Alexander still hanging on.

The moose slipped the noose and bucked off Alexander, leaving him with a bloody cut on his head.

“You don’t expect to see something like this - certainly not downtown,” said Chris Koenig, an onlooker.

The game workers regrouped, more cautiously, and shot three more darts at the yearling’s scruffy hide, two of which bounced off. During the next hour, the moose lay down, got up and lay down again, seemingly unfazed.

Eventually, it wandered sideways for a few minutes, foot-long tongue hanging from its snout, and fell to the brush. Onlookers helped game workers cart the animal onto a truck and douse it with water to beat the heat.

The moose died on the way to its new home.

Game workers tranquilizing large animals is always risky. But a moose’s physiology and temperament combined with Monday’s anxiety and hot weather probably contributed to the death.

“We had a difficult choice to make,” said conservation officer Don Carr. “Either leave it in a residential area where it will cause some type of accident or move it out.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 color photos