Officers Free Elk From the Tire Around Its Neck After Two Years

In trying times, we all need feel-good stories. This is just such a story.

A poor bull elk had a tire around its neck for at least the last two years. The tire was stuck because of its antlers and was burdening the elk which was estimated to be four and a half years old.

We first learned of this elk with a tire around its neck in July 2019 when wildlife officer Jared Lamb saw it during a survey near Mount Evans. In this video, wildlife officer Scott Murdoch discusses the situation & what it would take to remove the tire.https://t.co/Frwi3kaXlc pic.twitter.com/xRrZ9nNChw

— CPW NE Region (@CPW_NE) August 14, 2020

On Saturday evening, Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers decided to lend a helping hand. They proceeded to tranquilize the elk, cut its antlers off, and remove the tire. The officers involved in this wildlife rescue story were Dawson Swanson and Scott Murdoch.

“I am just grateful to be able to work in a community that values our state’s wildlife resource,” Swanson said in a statement. “I was able to quickly respond to a report from a local resident regarding a recent sighting of this bull elk in their neighborhood. I was able to locate the bull in question along with a herd of about 40 other elk.”

Murdoch added that the officers would have preferred to cut the tire and leave the antlers for the elk's rutting activity but that was, unfortunately, not a possibility. 

You would expect the bullet elk to have many wounds around the tire's location but the officers said it looked pretty good. The hair was simply rubbed off a little bit and there was one small open wound the size of a nickel or quarter. 

This is good news as the elk is expected to recover from the small injuries quickly. 

But why did it take so long to help the poor animal? The officers said that it was their fourth attempt to try and tranquilize the bull just this week, so we can imagine that this procedure was actually quite complex.

All is well that ends well and this lucky bull elk is now free and hopefully happy!