An elk roamed the hills of Colorado, USA with a tire stuck around its neck for two years – and was finally released this week. The keeper…
The four-and-a-half-year-old animal weighing about 270 kg was sighted near Pine Junction, southwest of Denver, on Saturday night and officials were able to calm him down, the company said. Colorado parks and wildlife… This was the fourth attempt in the past week to catch him and help him.
To remove the tire from the animal’s neck, it was necessary to cut the moose horns, since it was impossible to cut the object due to its composition. “We would have preferred to cut the tire and leave the horns for you to cut, but we had to pull the tire as far as possible,” said Scott Murdoch, who was involved in the process.
The big surprise, officials said, was that the elk’s neck was not severely damaged by the friction of the tire: it only had a worn fur and a small open wound, but it looked “good.”
According to Park, the elk stuck a splint around its neck when it was very young, before it got horns, or in the winter when it lost them. He probably stuck his head in a large pile of tires near where people feed the animals.
