According to the Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPS) officials, a bull elk was tranquilized and a tire was removed from its neck on Saturday evening.
CPS said that the incident took place around 8pm about a mile south of Pine Junction on some private property off of County Road 126. Officials had been chasing this bull elk for over two years and finally caught it.
Wildlife officers first spotted the animal with the tire around its neck back in July 2019. They tried to trap it four times to remove the tire but the elk got away and was never caught until now.
When CPW officers Dawson Swanson and Scott Murdoch tranquilized the bull, they said they had to cut off one of its antlers in order to get the tire off. The elk had grown to a whopping 600 pounds elk and was aged to be about 4 and a half years old.
“It was tight removing it,” Scott said. “We would have preferred to cut the tire and leave the antlers for his rutting activity, but the situation was dynamic and we had to just get the tire off in any way possible.”
The tire had rubbed a little bit of the hair off the elk’s neck causing it to have a small open wound about the size of the quarter, but other than that, the elk was fine.
Wildlife Officials say that wildlife like deer, elk, moose, bears, and other animals have been found tangled in swing sets, hammocks, clothing lines, decorative lighting, furniture, tomato cages, chicken feeders, laundry baskets, soccer goals, volleyball nets, and tires.
They ask that if anyone sees a wild animal tangled and struggling, to call CPW’s Denver office at 303-291-7227.