Newborn’s new life

BIG LAKE — The future is rosy for Robin.

The newborn moose chased onto the Big Lake property of Randy Richards and his family has a new home at the Milwaukee Zoo. It’s a journey that began with the moose seeking refuge by Richards’ shed late Wednesday evening.

“It was really young,” Richards said. “I don’t think it was three days old. Those dogs chased it into my yard. We kind of left it alone for its mom for awhile, but she didn’t show up.”

Fearing the newborn, later named Robin, had no mother to care for it, Richards called Alaska State Troopers, then the state Fish and Game office. A trooper suggested shooting the moose, but Richards discounted that option and began calling Southcentral wildlife sanctuaries. Two were full, but then Fish and Game contacted Alaska Zoo in Anchorage, which found a home for the female moose calf in Milwaukee.

“Well, we were really hoping the mother moose would show up,” Richards said. “But my guess is something happened during birth. She had her umbilical cord and her hooves were still soft.”

Richards was busy putting together some office furniture about 10:30 or 11 p.m. when he heard dogs barking outside. He chased off the dogs and watched as the moose found a place to rest. From there, he watched and waited in case its mother was nearby and responded to the calf’s pleas.

Some of Richards’ children watched over the young moose into the wee hours of Thursday morning. Richards credits Fish and Game personnel and Alaska Zoo for saving Robin.

“It’s just fantastic,” he said. “I was against the trooper’s suggestion last night. That didn’t seem like an option. It needed a good start in life. I didn’t think whacking it was the appropriate thing. Kudos to the zoo. They did a fantastic job. It was better than I was hoping to hear. They went above and beyond.”

For the zoo, taking in abandoned wildlife is nothing new, said Alaska Zoo Director Pat Lampi.

“I’ve been here for 23 years and I say we’ve had, oh, pushing 100 moose calves,” he said. “We’ve had as many as a dozen in one summer.”

Lampi said the zoo works closely with Fish and Game to find homes for animals like moose and bears. And while Richards praised the zoo for its efforts, Lampi returned the complement.

“It sounds like he did the right thing to contact Fish and Game,” he said. “That’s what we tell everyone (who encounters wildlife on their property).”

For now, Robin will stay at Alaska Zoo for about another month until the proper paperwork can be done to transfer it to Milwaukee, Lampi said.

Perhaps Richards and his family could cross paths with Robin again should they ever find themselves in the northern Midwest. In the mean time, he said it feels good knowing “we’re sharing our natural resources with Milwaukee.”

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com.