Alberta Fish and Wildlife officers have captured a female moose that was spotted wandering around the employee parking lot behind the Shawnessy Superstore on Wednesday morning.
Fish and Wildlife officers received a call from police at about 7:45 a.m. saying that a moose was in the greenspace near Macleod Trail.
“Due to its location, we decided to attend, to assess. Got here, everything looked safe, the moose was in good shape, she was relaxed. Due to her location, we decided to immobilize her, which was successfully done with one dart. She went down within five minutes, which is a good sign, and she loaded up well,” said Philip Marasco, Alberta Fish and Wildlife Officer.
Marasco say the mature moose likely wandered in from the Fish Creek area.
“They have a way of sneaking their way through parking lots and little green spaces, such as this one,” he said. “You see in residential areas that border green spaces that have a lot of ornamentals, the cedars, the choke cherries, the pin cherries, stuff like that. Moose do come up to eat the fresh buds and considering everything is starting to turn a little bit green, that could have been what brought her up.”
Fish and wildlife say if people do see a moose in residential areas they should not approach the animal.
“Moose are pretty docile most of the time but they can be very aggressive when cornered, especially a cow with a calf or a bull in the rut, let’s say in October, so it’s best to keep your distance, keep your dog on leash and as long as an escape terrain is given to the animal, it will generally leave,” said Morasco.
Officers say they will take the moose to the Kananaskis area and release her.
