June 15, 2005
Wednesday

Anchorage, Alaska - John Cooper and his family grew attached to the moose cow and new calf that had been munching in their backyard for almost a week. So when the calf wedged its hind end between planks of a picket fence and struggled desperately to get free, Cooper removed a slat and lifted out the little animal, all while the mother moose watched.

"I had hoped for the best," said Cooper.

But the calf had been pinched too tightly for too long. It was not going to recover and had to be shot, said Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Rick Sinnott.

At this time of year, hundreds of cow moose give birth in Anchorage backyards and greenbelts, said Sinnott. Bears emerge from hibernation and hit the neighborhoods in search of food. And Sinnott spends his days refereeing the melee between humans and wildlife, all living together in this Alaska city.

In fact, when the Cooper family was calling Sinnott about the stuck calf, the biologist was chasing a troublemaking black bear.

One day after shooting the calf, he returned to the neighborhood to retrieve the carcass and take it to "my secret calf disposal site," Sinnott said.

Otherwise, there was a risk that the mother moose would defend the baby and act aggressively, he said. The moose had generally been calm, Cooper and Sinnott said, except for when it had to defend the calf from some loose dogs a few days ago.

"She doesn't tolerate dogs," Sinnott said.

Moose often return to seemingly safe urban places to give birth and tend to their vulnerable young, Sinnott said. Cooper said his yard - mostly protected by fences - was one of those places. He and his wife and two children found it fascinating, he said.

"It's fascinating but it's also dangerous," Sinnott said. "They can wreak havoc trying to defend a calf."

Bears are a different issue. They're lured by garbage cans, grow accustomed to eating trash, and become brazen, he said. Though not necessarily dangerous, they can pose a risk if they lose fear of humans and aggressively seek food.

Sinnott darted a male yearling black bear at its city park hangout and had it shipped to the Institute of Arctic Biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks for research. That bear will be killed when the hibernation study is over, he said.

It was the cub of a notorious garbage-eater who has taught one too many offspring to seek out trash, Sinnott said. The mother has a reputation for garbage pilfering at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Sinnott said.

"If I catch up to the mom again, she's history," Sinnott said. "She's got a rap sheet a mile long from Elmendorf and I'm not going to tolerate it."

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