What the deuce? A moose on the Palouse
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SPOKANE - A moose found loose on the Palouse is recovering.
The 7-month-old animal was found last week alongside his dead mother in a wheat field near the town of Dusty, 60 miles south of Spokane.
"The Palouse is the weirdest place in the world for a moose," said Madonna Luers, spokeswoman for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife in Spokane.
Moose do not eat the wheat stubble that covers the rolling, treeless hills in Eastern Washington. There are few of the broadleaf plants the animals need to survive.
"He was in the middle of a moose desert," Luers said. "He would have to have traveled a long ways to get to forage."
Wildlife experts think the moose wandered onto the Palouse from Moscow Mountain in Idaho, 25 miles east.
The moose calf, dubbed Dusty, was captured last Thursday by wildlife agents after a farmer reported the animal.
The body of the moose's mother was found nearby and taken to Washington State University to determine the cause of death. Luers said there was no gunshot wound or obvious trauma.
Dusty was refusing to leave his mother's side and was trying to suckle.
"It was pretty pathetic," Luers said.
Dusty weighs about 200 pounds.
Moose in the wild live with their mothers until they are a year or so old.
Spokane veterinarian Luther McConnell is caring for the moose on his property north of Spokane. His goal is to keep Dusty alive for a month or more and then release him back into the wild in the spring.
McConnell is trying to prevent Dusty from becoming too familiar with humans by keeping the calf in a pen surrounded by tarps so the moose can't see humans or farm animals.
After Dusty is released, wildlife agents will continue to provide him some food until he gets used to finding his own. They don't expect that to take too long.
"Dusty is a boy," Luers said. "When his hormones start stirring, he's going to want to go."