PINE, Colorado, Oct. 11, 2021 (Gephardt Daily) — An elk with a tire around its neck for at least the last two years was finally freed of the obstacle Saturday evening when Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers were able to tranquilize the bull and remove the item.
Wildlife officers Dawson Swanson and Scott Murdoch had to cut the antlers off the bull elk in order to remove the tire, said a news release from Colorado Parks and Wildlife. That occurred Saturday around 8 p.m., roughly one mile south of Pine Junction on private property off of County Road 126.
“I am just grateful to be able to work in a community that values out state’s wildlife resource,” Swanson said. “I was able to quickly respond to a report from a local resident regarding a recent sighting of this bull elk in their neighborhood. I was able to locate the bull in question along with a herd of about 40 other elk.”
Wildlife officers aged the bull as a four-and-a-half year old, weighing over 600 pounds.
“It was tight removing it,” Murdoch said of pulling the tire off the bull’s neck, even after cutting its antlers off. “It was not easy for sure, we had to move it just right to get it off because we weren’t able to cut the steel in the bead of the tire. Fortunately, the bull’s neck still had a little room to move. We would have preferred to cut the tire and leave the antlers for his rutting activity, but the situation was dynamic and we had to just get the tire off in any way possible.”
Once the tire was off, the men were surprised to see the condition of its neck after having that tire on it for over two years.
“The hair was rubbed off a little bit, there was one small open wound maybe the size of a nickel or quarter, but other than that it looked really good,” Murdoch said of the bull’s neck. “I was actually quite shocked to see how good it looked.”
It was the fourth attempt wildlife officers had made in the last week to try to tranquilize the bull elk. Saturday evening, officer Swanson was in a neighborhood looking for this elk that was reported in the area earlier in the day. He found it in a group of elk and maneuvered into a location where he thought it was going to cross. Swanson was able to successfully tranquilize the animal. Murdoch arrived to aid in the removal operation before the two set him free.
Swanson and Murdoch estimated that the bull elk dropped roughly 35 pounds between the removal of the tire, his antlers and the debris that was inside the tire.
“The tire was full of wet pine needles and dirt,” Murdoch said. “So the pine needles, dirt and other debris basically filled the entire bottom half of the tire. There was probably 10 pounds of debris in the tire.”
This bull elk has spent the past couple of years traveling back and forth between Park and Jefferson Counties. He would disappear for long periods of time, particularly in the winter, and was acting as expected from a wild animal, not wanting to be around human presence, the news release said.
The first time wildlife officers became aware of this elk with a tire around its neck was in July 2019. While conducting a population survey for Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep and mountain goats in the Mount Evans Wilderness, wildlife officer Jared Lamb saw the bull through a spotting scope.
At the time the bull appeared to be a younger one, likely 2 years old.
A trail camera near Conifer picked up the bull with the tire twice in 2020, first on June 5 and later on July 12. A separate trail camera also captured it on Aug. 12, 2020.
“The saga of this bull elk highlights the need for residents to live responsibly with wildlife in mind,” the news release said. “That includes keeping your property free of obstacles that wildlife can get tangled in or injured by.
“Wildlife officers have seen deer, elk, moose, bears and other wildlife become entangled in a number of man-made obstacles that include swing sets, hammocks, clothing lines, decorative or holiday lighting, furniture, tomato cages, chicken feeders, laundry baskets, soccer goals or volleyball nets, and yes, tires.”
This elk would have gotten the tire around its antlers either when it was very young, before it had antlers, or during the winter when it shed its antlers, the news release said.
