EDWARDS — Shayla Turnbull was about to head into Vail Valley’s Berry Creek Middle School when she saw a huge moose roaming around the Edwards campus.
Shayla’s mother, Janeil, was dropping her off at school when Shayla spotted the moose from the car. Janeil Turnbull grabbed her camera, and the two followed the moose to the ball fields.
“I don’t think she liked the flash” from the camera, Janeil Turnbull said of the moose.
The moose in question actually was a male, said Randy Hampton, spokesman for the Colorado Division of Wildlife.
After spending the morning in the Edwards area around Berry Creek Middle School, June Creek Elementary School and Eagle County Charter Academy, he wandered back across U.S. 6 up toward Arrowhead, Hampton said.
He’s now back in the woods, where there are fewer people around, and he’ll probably hang out in the area for weeks, Hampton said. The schools were told to keep students inside all day Tuesday as a precaution.
“People need to keep their distance and leave him alone,” he said.
Sightings of the large animals aren’t uncommon in the valley.
“Moose are doing quite well in Colorado,” he said. “There are a number of different populations, and as they continue to grow, it’s going to be more common to see them in the Eagle River Valley.”
The Colorado Division of Wildlife reintroduced moose into the state in 1978 and 1979. Before then, moose wandered into the state, but there wasn’t a breeding population here, according to the DOW website.
The North Park area in northern Colorado has the largest moose population in the state, Hampton said. Moose often roam into surrounding areas.
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