With a full rack and only three good legs, a bull moose hobbled through light snowfall Monday in the area of Trena Street in Anchorage to munch on dead shrubbery.
Last week, KTVA reported the moose had gotten tangled in wire and injured its hind right leg, and neighbors had to help untangle the moose.
Neighborhood resident Randall Moyer said he was finally able to pull the wire off the bull's rack Sunday.
"I just took a long paint pole, an extended one with a hook on the end, and grabbed it," Moyer said. "It kind of fell off, but when he got up against the house I reached out of a window and grabbed the rest of it. He just kept walking on it."
Moyer added that the moose has been in the neighborhood for about two years and is known for snatching fall pumpkins.
Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Dave Battle said that when moose are reported injured, the agency routinely checks on the animal to see if it's making progress. In general, he said, moose are resilient and capable of making a recovery.
Battle also said it is important that people refrain from feeding the injured moose, as that could ensure that Fish and Game would have to euthanize it.
"A moose might not be aggressive if you're giving it a carrot, but it would then rely on that and expect it, even after it recovers, at which point it could become aggressive," Battle said. "They will chase people down the road for not having a carrot. It's happened a number of times in Anchorage and we would have to kill the moose to protect public safety."
Feeding a wild animal is also a misdemeanor.
Battle was unable to provide any additional information on the specific moose in the neighborhood near Lake Otis Parkway and Tudor Road, as he said he was not the responding biologist, who was unreachable Monday.
Moyer said he hasn't seen anyone feed the moose, but is worried that drivers traveling too fast down the road could hit it.
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