Talk about a pain in the neck.
Wildlife officials in Colorado are looking for an elk that has been spotted with a tire around its neck, and they believe it’s the same animal that was seen a year ago with the tire around its neck then, too.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife tweeted a video of the unfortunate bull elk this week that had been recorded by a trail camera.
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The elk was first spotted in July of 2019 by a team surveying mountain goats and bighorn sheep on Mount Evans. They spotted it through a scope but couldn’t reach the elk, according to Jason Clay, a public information officer for Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
Wildlife officials received several other reports of sightings over the past year until the trail camera recorded the elk in June and again more recently near Conifer, a community southwest of Denver, Clay said. But no one has been able to catch the elk to free him.
Even if officials do catch up with the elk, removing the tire will likely be an ordeal. Clay said its antlers are still in velvet, which means they can’t be cut until they harden. That means the tire will have to be cut off.
The good news, for now, is that the elk appears to be in good condition, Clay said.
“It doesn’t look like it’s been suffering,” he said. “When you get anything caught up around the antlers or the neck like that, what you worry about is: can they still move along without getting caught up on anything, can they still eat and forage and would they have any obstructions with their snout, breathing? Anything like that.”
The elk was first spotted with a tire around its neck in July of 2019. (Colorado Parks and Wildlife)
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But that could change. With breeding season approaching, Clay said there’s concern about what may happen to the elk or other elk it encounters.
“Elk will be fighting, competing for breeding rights,” Clay said. “So you could imagine as they lock antlers and they tussle that it’s very likely another bull elk could get its antlers caught up in that tire, and then you could lose two bull elk.”
Officials will keep an eye out in the wilderness around Mount Evans for now. But Clay said it’s also a reminder that people need to pick up their belongings.
“Wildlife, especially our antlered wildlife, often get caught up in hammocks, volleyball nets, clothing lines, decorative lighting,” he said. “So people need to make sure that they’re keeping a watchful eye for hazards that could affect wildlife.”