NEDERLAND — A young moose that wandered into the skate park in Nederland on Wednesday morning, was tranquilized and then removed, has died from the stress of the situation, Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials said.
“He was very stressed out by the time we arrived,” said Parks and Wildlife spokesman Randy Hampton. “This was a last-ditch effort, and unfortunately he didn’t make it.”
The juvenile bull moose was reported in the bowl of the skate park near the Nederland Teen Center around 11 a.m.
“From what we could tell, he was trying to cross to get down to the reservoir,” Nederland Police Chief Jake Adler said, referring to Barker Reservoir.
Nederland police called rangers from Colorado Parks and Wildlife, who tranquilized the moose. Officers and rangers then performed a “technical rescue” — loading the animal onto a tarp, which was attached to a winch that hauled it out of the bowl.
Hampton said it is not unusual for an animal to become so stressed by an encounter with people and from being tranquilized that the body goes into shock and the animal is unable to recover.
“We want to be open and honest about what happened,” Hampton said. “People think we can just swoop in and move the animal, and that isn’t always the case.”
On Tuesday, Wildlife officers successfully moved a moose from near the Thunder Mountain Harley-Davidson dealership. A few days before that, a moose was relocated from Fort Collins.
