State troopers and Haines Police used yelling, clapping, sirens, flashing lights, trucks and ultimately a front-end loader to shoo away a cow moose with two newborn calves that bedded down Thursday night next to the high school.
“She would look up at us, put her ears down, and then not move at all. She wouldn’t have anything to do with it. She was standing her ground,” said state wildlife trooper Ricky Merritt.
“We were trying to make the cow uncomfortable enough to move across the road, without losing the calves, and without stressing them any more than we had to,” Merritt said.
The age of the calves and the cow’s choice of beds made for a unique situation, he said. “They were backed into a corner.”
According to police, the three moose took up residence at “Frankie’s Garden,” a patch of grass and shrubs between the school and adjacent parking lot, on the building’s east side. As word of them spread, residents came by to look and snap photos, prompting police to station a patrolman there.
Ryan Scott, area management biologist for the state Department of Fish and Game, said when he was consulted Friday morning he was inclined to let the moose be and to advise school officials to use a different entrance.
A cow could be expected to be defensive and protective of its calves, but the situation wasn’t inherently dangerous, Scott said. School and police officials, however, were concerned about other residents approaching the trio.
“Having people milling around a place where there’s a cow and two calves is generally not a good idea,” Scott said.
When clapping and a police siren failed to budge the animals, police approached the animals in trucks. The cow stood within inches of vehicles and bluff-charged them a few times. The approaching loader, its bucket hoisted at the cow’s eye level, finally got the animal moving, but only one calf tagged along.
Merritt scooped up the straggling newborn and carried it to the cow and calf, by then heading to the site of the old primary school building.
Some onlookers questioned Merritt’s handling of the moose, but biologist Scott said the trooper made the right move.
“Generally it’s a good idea not to handle small animals like that, it could be if they get the human scent the females won’t want anything to do with them, but we’ve also had incidents where people grab these animals and were able to reunite (mothers and newborns) and it worked out fine,” Scott said.
Merritt said he didn’t have any doubts. “Instantly that cow came right to that calf. There was no hesitation.”
The trio was last seen in a wooded lot near Third Avenue and Mission Street, where wildlife officials were hoping the animals could get quiet and sleep.
Biologist Scott said officials involved used “good, common sense,” to produce a good result. “It created a little bit of a public safety quandary, but if we can keep a cow and two calves going, it’s perfect.”
Police said the moose may have been spooked out of the woods across the street from the school by bears. Bears have been active in recent weeks along the Chilkat River.