Parks collision leads to standoff between police, cow moose

WASILLA — A collision between a motorist and moose calf briefly snarled Tuesday afternoon commuter traffic on the Parks Highway in downtown Wasilla after the calf’s mother refused to leave the fallen animal’s side.

The ensuing standoff between law enforcement officers and the protective moose ended when a Wasilla police officer and Alaska Wildlife Trooper used fireworks and flares to scare the moose far enough from the busy highway to safely drag the calf off the road.

“Mom’s calf got hit, and mom was just being a mom,” Wasilla police sergeant Jean Achee said following the incident.

The bizarre scene unfolded at around 6:15 p.m. According to police, the moose calf darted out into oncoming traffic and was struck by a motorist heading northbound near the Wasilla Taco Bell. The motorist tried to avoid the moose, but ended up in the ditch instead.

When emergency responders arrived, they found that the mother moose would not allow them to get to the driver of the vehicle. With the help of police, paramedics were eventually able to reach the injured woman safely, loading her into an ambulance and taking her to Mat-Su Regional Medical Center. No information on the woman was immediately known, other than her injuries were not expected to be life-threatening.

Police then had to figure out a way to get the cow moose away from the highway. They could not approach the calf safely with the mother nearby.

“They tend to stay around for a while,” wildlife trooper Matt Hightower said.

Traffic slowed to a crawl as police were forced to partially close the northbound lane while they dealt with the cow moose.

Eventually, Hightower and Achee decided to shoot fireworks at the grieving mother. The plan worked, moving the moose away from the road and toward nearby Cottonwood Creek. With Achee providing cover, Hightower quickly grabbed the dead moose calf, dragging it into the brush and away from the busy highway.

“We weren’t going to shoot her,” Achee said of the cow moose. “We just wanted to get her off the road.”

Contact Matt Tunseth at 352-2265 or matt.tunseth@frontiersman.com