Anchorage Daily News

Police interrupted a moose getaway in progress along the Glenn Highway Thursday afternoon when they pulled a pickup over after motorists reported two calves stashed in its bed.

The calves had apparently been orphaned, and the woman driving them out of town told police she was taking them to a Mat-Su reindeer farm to live out their lives.

"Basically she claimed the mother moose is dead and she was worried that troopers would come out and shoot the babies," Anchorage police officer Joel Miner said.

From the back of the red pickup sitting on the shoulder of the highway, its bed covered with a shell, the weeks-old calves thumped around and brayed incessantly as police waited for Fish and Game to show up and remove them.

The calves' mother had apparently been shot Wednesday night near Elmore Road and Trapline Drive after she kicked a dog, killing it, and charged a woman, Anchorage-area wildlife biologist Rick Sinnott said. A wildlife trooper investigating the situation said the shooting appeared to be justified, he said.

"Apparently he saw the calves or knew that they were there, but then they disappeared and nobody knew where they were," Sinnott said. "We strongly suspect somebody just took them away to their garage or whatever. So then today we get the call about this, and it's just a little bit too coincidental."

Drivers began reporting the moose in the back of the pickup as the afternoon rush hour began, police Lt. Dave Parker said. The vehicle drove north on the Seward Highway and connected with the Glenn, and police pulled it over just past Airport Heights Drive.

The woman, whom officials wouldn't name, was not immediately cited for a crime. Sinnott said wildlife troopers would make a decision on what, if any, charges she would face.

The woman and a female passenger declined to comment, saying they wanted to speak to their attorney.

To get the moose out, officials directed the women to pull off the highway, behind an apartment building, so the moose wouldn't get hit by a car.

Sinnott and assistant wildlife biologist Jessy Coltrane wrestled the moose out one by one, their legs flailing through the air as they cried out like children. They were both stuffed into one large plastic dog crate in the back of Sinnott's pickup.

The biologists planned to take them to the Alaska Zoo for safekeeping overnight. Their fate would be decided today, Sinnott said.

Find James Halpin online at adn.com/contact/jhalpin or call him at 257-4589.

ADVERTISEMENT