Utah Division of Wildlife Resources officers are tracking the moose near the Lambs Canyon exit to tranquilize it and take it away. The search area is nearest to mile marker 137.
Meanwhile, for the second day in a row, Utah Highway Patrol cars are doing “traffic slowdowns,” according to Sergeant Cameron Roden. That means leading traffic slowly through the area in both directions, starting a few miles behind where the officers are following the moose. It gives officers 10- to 15- minute windows to track down the animal uninterrupted.
The DWR first got reports of two bull moose in a median on I-80 near the Little Dell Reservoir exit Saturday afternoon. DWR officers tried to herd them out using a ramp that day but didn’t succeed.
They returned around 1 p.m. Sunday and closed all lanes. Eventually, troopers led slowdowns to allow traffic to move intermittently.
The DWR reported removing one of the two around 5 p.m., but the other was too deep in the woods to track down.
DWR Spokesperson Faith Heaton Jolley says this is a fairly common occurrence in the state, especially where there’s much wildlife like in Parleys Canyon.
“The process usually is that we’ll locate the animal, tranquilize it - we’ll shoot it with a tranquilizer dart,” Jolley says. “Then, the animal gets sleepy and becomes unconscious, and then we’ll load it into a trailer. Then, once we get it to where we want to relocate it, kind of back into its natural habitat area, we’ll administer a second shot. It’ll kind of wake it back up, then we let it out of the trailer, kind of watch it and make sure it’s doing okay, then it just wanders off, kind of back into its normal habitat area.”
