Fish and Game looking for moose on loose

Idaho Fish and Game may have to relocate or kill a moose that for the last few weeks has been wandering in and around Bayview unless people stop feeding it.

Many local residents have watched the animal as it wanders through yards, between buildings, and even pokes its head into a window to be scratched, and game wardens are worried someone might get hurt or that the moose may have to be put down. In the case of several recent sightings, people have approached the moose as if it were a family pet, with some feeding it by hand.

“I’ll go out on a limb here, and say that moose are more dangerous to people than bears,” said Fish and Game’s Chip Corsi. The animals can be very unpredictable. Aggressive and fearful of nothing, they have been known to attack trains, cars and pedestrians if provoked. Corsi said a man was stomped to death last year in an Alaska town where moose are around much of the time. A moose’s front hoofs are sharp and can kill a person without any effort, he said.

Corsi said it is very hard to relocate a moose that does not want to leave. Many times, tranquilizing the animal will cause its death, or it may become necessary to kill the animal so that the “tamed” moose doesn’t harm people, he said.

He said that feeding or petting wild animals is extremely dangerous and that it trains the animal to be human-dependent for food, without actually being domesticated.

Corsi urged people to avoid this moose, a bull that has shed its antlers, and not to approach it or try to pet or feed it. You might get away with it once, then get stomped the next time.