There were a pair of moose on the loose in Saskatoon on Wednesday morning, and conservation officers believe they’re siblings.
Saskatoon police called in conservation officers shortly after 5 a.m. CT after two moose were spotted in the area of Circle Drive and Avenue C North.
Officers had the two cornered just off Cynthia Street when conservation officers moved in. One moose was barricaded in the Remier Express Lines lot, while the other remained in an alley off Cynthia under the watchful eye of police.
Both moose were tranquilized and eventually brought to a safe location outside of the city.
“In this case, they were taken to a more suitable moose habitat out along the North Saskatchewan River,” Kerry Wrishko, an inspector with the conservation officer service in Saskatoon, said.
According to conservation, May and June are peak months for moose spottings in the city due to calving season.
“A moose calf after its born stays with its mother for an entire year and she teaches them rights and wrongs,” Wrishko said. “But this time of year, the mother moose is preparing to give birth to new calves and at that time she essentially gives last year’s calves the boot.”
Although the year-old moose are only half of the 800 to 1,000 pounds they’ll grow to weigh, conservation officers are warning the public when they come across a wild moose in the city.
“Any wildlife can be considered dangerous; certainly a moose, an animal of that size can run over a person and injure a person really easily,” Wrishko said. “It’s best to give them lots of distance and don’t try to approach them, let the professionals deal with them.”
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