Anchorage Daily News

BIG LAKE -- A newborn moose is headed for the Midwest later this summer after a harrowing introduction to life that included being separated from its mother Wednesday, chased by dogs and rescued by a Big Lake family.

A pair of dogs chased the moose into Randy Richards' yard in Big Lake, about 50 miles north of Anchorage, about 10:30 p.m. Richards went outside and drove away the dogs, which he said he hadn't seen before.

The moose calf, so newly born that it still had soft hooves and an umbilical cord hanging under its belly, lay down next to a shed in Richards' yard.

"I was kind of hoping mom would show up. It was calling for its mother," he said.

But Mama Moose didn't show, and Richards' daughter and son couldn't find her when they went looking through the neighborhood. So Richards and his stepson gently carried the calf to a fenced area and the family kept an eye on it through the night.

Meanwhile, Richards called Alaska State Troopers to see what to do. An officer there said it might be best to shoot it in the morning.

Richards wasn't about to let that happen. An avid hunter, he thought the calf should get a fair start in life, even if his family had to do it on the sly.

"Someone should raise it and let it get strong enough to fend for itself," he said at his kitchen table Thursday, when it was all over.

The calf caused some commotion during the rainy night from Wednesday to Thursday, running around the yard and crying for its mother. But morning arrived and Mama Moose still was nowhere to be seen.

So Richards started making calls.

Nick Cassara, a fish and game technician Richards spoke to that morning, was making calls, too. He said the Milwaukee County Zoo had applied to the state for two moose. The application wasn't yet approved but the Alaska Zoo, where a lot of moose orphans end up, agreed to take care of the calf until it was.

Cassara loaded the moose in the back seat of his pickup and delivered it there Thursday.

The moose was a good passenger, he said. Ungulates travel like dogs and generally either lie down for the journey or try to stick their noses out the window.

Zoo executive director Pat Lampi said he expects the moose will go to Milwaukee in about a month. For now, it'll be tended to by zoo staff.

In the 23 years he's worked at Alaska Zoo, said Lampi, about 100 moose calves and 37 polar bear, black bear and brown bear cubs have been rescued and sent off to zoos around the world.

Reached Thursday, Alaska Fish and Game wildlife biologist Rick Sinnott said orphaned moose sometimes are shot, but it's pretty rare.

"We'll try and do everything we can to get it back to the cow, and if we can't, we'll try and find a way to rescue it," Sinnott said.

But if its mother is gone or has been killed and no zoos or wildlife rearing areas want a moose, the choices are grim, Sinnott said: Put it back in the woods or put it out of its misery.

Find Daily News reporter Rindi White online at www.adn.com/contact/rwhite or call her at 1-907-352-6709.

ADVICE FROM THE EXPERTS

Seen a moose calf wandering alone? Alaska Fish and Game biologists say leave the calf alone. Its mother is most likely nearby and will return to pick it up. If several hours or a day has passed and the calf is still alone, contact Alaska State Troopers or state Fish and Game officials.

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