Like many Laramie residents, Christoph Geisler is used to seeing antelope and occasionally deer in town.
“But never a moose,” he told Cowboy State Daily on Monday. “That surprised me.”
At about 7 a.m., he got a call from a friend at the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, who told Geisler that there was moose wandering around on the grounds of Slade Elementary School just across the street from his house.
Game wardens and officers from the Laramie and University of Wyoming police departments were on the scene, hoping to hit the young bull moose with a tranquilizer dart.
Probably Wandered In From The River
It’s fairly common for moose to move along Laramie River, which flows through town, Game and Fish Laramie region spokeswoman Caroline Rosinski told Cowboy State Daily.
They are frequently young bulls out looking for new territory, she said, adding that the bull that wardens captured Monday was probably 2-3 years old.
“He was probably wandering along the river and got sidetracked into the more urban areas of town,” Rosinski said.
Once wardens found the moose in an athletic practice field on the school grounds, near the corner of 15th and Reynolds streets, it didn’t take long to get things under control, she said.
“Everything went totally according to plan,” she said.
After the moose was subdued with a tranquilizer dart, it was loaded into a horse trailer and taken west of Laramie into the Snowy Range Mountains, where it was set free, Rosinski said.
Watched It From Their Porch
Geisler said if he hadn’t gotten the call from his friend, he and his family might have missed the incident.
As it was, they got to watch everything from a safe distance.
“I was just standing on my front porch with my wife and kids, watching everything unfold,” he said.
At first, the moose wandered about the field and game wardens waited for it to settle down so they could get a clear shot with a tranquilizer gun, he said.
After a while, the young bull finally settled down in a shady spot, offering a clean shot.
“It looked like he was fighting to stay awake for a while, but then he finally went to sleep, Geisler said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
