Last night I got a call to recover a Moose that had been hit by a vehicle. I am a volunteer for the Alaska Moose Federation, we recover these Moose and deliver them to charities. Here is the story I posted.
This Moose was hit by a vehicle around 5 PM. Moose got up and ran off. Troopers responded to Vehicle/Moose collision. Nat Geo photographers in tow.
Around 7 PM a family called about a Moose lying in their front yard, looked injured. Troopers responded, with Nat Geo photographers in tow.
7:22 PM I got the call to recover a Moose. I was having trouble with equipment at 33 below called Vince he said to pick him up and he would go along to help with equipment. I picked up Vince Holton and we responded. The Moose was located on Holmes Rd, a residential area.
I saw the Trooper Car sitting in the driveway and pulled in. Vince saw a big bull moose lying in the yard. When I jumped out of the truck I saw the Nat Geo Photographer taking pictures of the truck and us. The Moose was located in the middle of a bunch of Birch trees, no way to get close with the truck. I backed the truck as close as I could get, then started pulling winch cable. Slipped loops on the hind legs, hooked up the winch cable and started winching. Pulled the Moose out to the clear area. Hooked up the front legs, put the ramp in place, then proceeded to winch the Moose up on the truck. The winch was straining, and I thought for a moment it was not going to get this big boy up on the truck. Finally got it aboard, then strapped the body down. The head along with the antlers proved to be a problem. We moved them to the side and up as high as we could get them, and strapped them in place.
The National Geographic people came over with release forms for Vince and I to sign so they can put the scene on their Alaska State Troopers show. We then cleared the scene.
Went down the road to an empty parking lot and finished our (Alaska Moose Federation) paperwork, then called Trooper Dispatch for the location we were to take Moose. Moose went to some folks out in Ester, a community just west of Fairbanks. Off we went to Ester.
The guy getting the Moose met us at the Ester weigh station. I followed him to his friends home, where they had a garage to do the processing inside. I backed up to the garage, unstrapped the Moose, disconnected the winch line, then gave it a shove. It rolled off the truck, right in front of the garage doors. They signed for the delivery, I gave them their copy, and headed home. I was back home in North Pole by 9 PM.
The Moose was big, I'd guess it weighed around 14 to 16 hundred pounds. The antlers were around the mid to high 50s. The temp was -24 when we got to the scene.
