A bull elk in Colorado is no longer stuck in unconventional a-tire thanks to the work of two wildlife officers.
Two wildlife officers with the Colorado Parks and Wildlife were successfully able to remove a tire stuck around the neck of a bull elk on Saturday night. The elk with the tire stuck on its neck was first seen in July 2019, with several attempts made by the department to catch it and remove the tire, the Colorado Parks and Wildlife revealed in a news release.
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“It was tight removing it,” Scott Murdoch, one of the wildlife officers, said in regard to removing the tire. “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 elk’s neck still had a little room to move.”
To remove the tire, Murdoch and Dawson Swanson had to cut the antlers off the elk. The initial plan was to simply cut the tire, but since that plan was not working, they resorted to cutting the antlers and lifting the tire off the elk. Inside the tire were 10 pounds of wet dirt and pine needles, making the whole tire weigh approximately 35 pounds, according to the news release.
Once the two officers removed the tire, they were shocked to find that the animal’s neck looked “really good.” The only problems they could find were part of the elk’s hair was rubbed off and a small open wound that was no bigger than a quarter, the news release reported.
Multiple attempts had been made since July 2019, when a wildlife officer saw the elk while conducting a population survey in the Mount Evans Wilderness, to tranquilize the elk and remove the tire, but Saturday’s attempt by Murdoch and Swanson was the first successful one. Swanson was able to successfully tranquilize the elk and called for help to remove the tire, with Murdoch arriving shortly after, according to the news release.
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Wildlife officers aged the over 600-pound elk as over 4 years old, and it had five points on each of its antler beams.
