Young moose roaming Laramie campus safely relocated by game wardens

A young bull moose wandered through Laramie streets and the University of Wyoming campus Tuesday before Wyoming Game and Fish tranquilized it and moved it safely out of town. The animal was later seen near Grand Avenue and a strip mall, putting it into one of the city’s busiest corridors before it was loaded into a trailer.

Game and Fish handled the animal as a safety call, using a tranquilizer, eye mask, hobbles and a cooling shower to lower stress before transport. Laramie Police Department social media posts showed the response up close as officers and game wardens worked around the moose, which local posts nicknamed “Bullwinkle.”

The encounter fit a larger pattern in southeast Wyoming, where moose are part of the landscape in the mountain ranges and river bottoms across the state. Wyoming Game and Fish says moose live in areas including the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest in southeast Wyoming and the Snowy Range west of Laramie, and the department describes the species as Wyoming’s largest big-game animal. Young bull moose also often make whining or whimpering sounds, a sign that a lone animal moving through town may be under stress before it ever becomes a traffic or pedestrian hazard.

A separate young bull moose found near Wheatland in June was also taken by Game and Fish to be released in the Snowy Range west of Laramie. That kind of relocation shows how often game wardens are called to move large animals out of neighborhoods, roadways and campus areas and back toward mountain habitat.

The caution around Tuesday’s capture also carried local memory. In April 2020, a young bull moose that had been captured in a Laramie neighborhood died in transit after a relocation attempt, a reminder of the risks involved when large wildlife has to be moved through town.

Anyone who sees a moose near the University of Wyoming campus, Grand Avenue or other busy streets should give it space, keep pets away and let wildlife officers handle the animal. Drivers should slow down and stay in their vehicles, while pedestrians and business owners should avoid crowding the moose or trying to push it along on their own.