A bull moose that got stuck in a skate park in Red Lodge, Montana, prompted an hours-long, multi-agency effort to free it Wednesday.
Red Lodge resident Traci Mark told Cowboy State Daily the moose fell into the halfpipe at Hellroaring Skate Park around 10 a.m. Wednesday. By the time she got there at 11, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (MFWP) personnel had just arrived.
“They had brought a trailer and truck to the park,” she said. “They were going to try to tranquilize him and then winch him up and out with a big hitch.”
It wasn’t until after 2 p.m. that the moose was finally tranquilized and removed from the cement bowl.
Mark watched as personnel from MFWP, the Red Lodge Police Department, and the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office surrounded the halfpipe from the rim while the moose was stuck inside, unable to climb the steep and slick cement walls.
Everyone was clapping, presumably to keep the moose in the middle of the pit so it wouldn’t try to climb up and out, she said.
Then, they tied two ratchet straps together and started shaking them, hoping to coerce the moose out through a narrow opening at the bottom of the halfpipe.
“They carted this big rubber cushion mat down there,” Mark said. “It was huge. I think their thinking was that they were trying to get him to get on that cushion, and then they were going to pull him up with that rope.”
Shortly thereafter, the park was cordoned off with crime scene tape, and the sheriff’s office issued a public safety announcement asking residents to avoid the area.
Around 2 p.m., the moose was tranquilized and placed in a harness. A dozen people pulled and carried the unconscious bull out of the halfpipe.
Then they gingerly lifted it into the waiting trailer. Once relocated outside Red Lodge, the moose would be revived and allowed to roam freely again.
Mark confirmed that the moose was safe and uninjured after its five-hour ordeal.
“It’s been an exciting day in Red Lodge,” Mark said.
‘That’s A Deep Hole'
When he saw the moose at about noon, the bull looked like it was getting pretty exhausted from trying to get out and the attention, said Don Hardy, who grew up in Cody and now lives about two blocks from the skate park.
“When we went by, the moose apparently was really worn out trying to get out,” Hardy told Cowboy State Daily. “Who knows how long he was in there?”
Hardy took a short video clip of the moose and the agency personnel trying to use the ratchet straps to get it out.
“Last I saw him, he was lying there looking exhausted, and they were trying to rig up something to wrap around him and get him up,” he said.
Hardy said he can see why a moose would get trapped in the bowl of the skate park.
“That’s a deep hole there in the skate park,” he said. “That moose was standing up in there, and his antlers won’t reach the top. I can see why he’d get stuck down there.”
Hardy said it’s an animal people around Red Lodge know well. That bull, along with a cow and calf, hang out around town quite a bit, including in his own yard two blocks away from the skate park, Hardy said.
“Oh yeah, he’s been hanging around for quite a long time,” he said. “He was parked in our yard for quite a while. He’s a monster. I can see why he can’t get out.”
The moose rescue also follows a summer and autumn that have seen a noticeable increase in wildlife around Red Lodge, he said.
“We’ve had more moose and bears this year than anytime in our memory, for whatever reason,” Hardy said. “There have been moose all over town, and bears.
“They’ve had to kill these bears, at least six or seven of them."
Contact Andrew Rossi at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
