Elk with tyre stuck around neck for half its life is finally free
- Wildlife officers finally catch up to animal after tracking it for two years but failing to get close
- The tyre, which could not be cut off, was removed after officers tranquillised the elk and sawed off its antlers
For more than two years, wildlife officers tracked an elk that was spotted with a tyre around its neck. Saturday, the elk was found and, at long last, it is free of the tyre.
Wildlife officers tranquillised the elk, sawed off its antlers and removed the tyre that had been around its neck for half of its life, according to a statement from Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
“The saga of the bull elk with a tyre around its neck is over,” the department tweeted Monday.
Wildlife officer Jared Lamb first spotted the elk in July 2019 as he counted bighorn sheep and mountain goats in the Mount Evans Wilderness, according to the statement from Colorado Parks and Wildlife. The elk seemed to be only two years old at the time, CPW said.
After Lamb saw the elk, a trail camera near Conifer – an unincorporated community in Jefferson County, about 30 miles (48km) southwest of Denver – captured the elk twice in 2020 before another trail camera picked it up later that year, CPW said. The elk kept disappearing.