Half-Ton Moose Slips Into Window Well While Munching Dinner, Falls Into Breckenridge Basement
BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. (CBS4)– A moose fell through a snow-covered window well and broke through a window to end up trapped in a basement in Breckenridge.
The cleaning crew was the first to notice the estimated 1,000-pound bull moose and called for backup. When police arrived, they too, called for backup. Colorado Parks and Wildlife's Jacob Kay, a District Wildlife Manager said compared to bear or mountain lions, moose are actually the more dangerous animals to deal with.
"Moose are typically the animal I have the most fear around," Kay said, laughing.
With a whole crew of emergency crews on hand, they first tried to open all the doors to the home and scare the moose into running out of the home, but the moose wasn't having it. At this point, the basement had been pretty roughed up between the broken window, the couch, the Ping-Pong table and the carpet now covered in what can only be referred to as moose pellets.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers had to tranquilize the animal to get him up the stairs and out of the house. They did have to cut off his antlers but those will grow back in the spring.
"It took all of us and everything that we had to get him on that matt and up the stairs," Sgt. Patrick Finley with Breckenridge Police Department told CBS4's Spencer Wilson.
After getting the moose outdoors and waking him back up with a reverse tranquilizer, they were able to watch the moose wander off, and begin eating right away. Colorado Parks and Wildlife believe the moose was hungry to begin with, and was eating a willow a little too close to the snow-covered window well, and slipped in.
The moose had no serious injuries but did have a small cut on its leg from where it went through the window. No crews were injured either, after pulling a half-ton animal up a stairwell on a tarp.
The moose was released back into more moose-friendly habitat. Parks and Wildlife suggest trimming or removing vegetation near window wells to reduce the likelihood this happens again.