Photo: Getty Images
Luckily, the elk will be ok! Colorado Parks & Wildlife officials finally removed a tire that was stuck around the neck of a bull (male) elk that had been there for over two years. Many don't know that an elk loses their antlers and regenerate them every year. The window for this process is really short too. Over the years, wildlife officials have seen this elk with the tire around his neck. Their concern was strangulation or death during a fight with another bull.
"Being up in the wilderness, we didn't really expect to be able to get our hands on the elk just because of the proximity or the distance away from civilization," CPW officer Scott Murdoch said in the release. "It is harder to get the further they are back in there and usually the further these elk are away from people, the wilder they act. That certainly played true the last couple of years, this elk was difficult to find, and harder to get close to."
Murdoch and CPW officer Dawson Swanson safely tranquilized the over 600-pound elk and removed the tire. Officers had to cut off the antlers to slide the tire off.
Photo: Getty Images