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A moose has been returned safely to the wild, after spending a good part of Tuesday lounging around the football stadium at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks.

A Twitter video released by the school’s police department shows the animal being let out of a trailer Tuesday night, after being sedated with a dart gun, carried into a livestock trailer and driven out of town with a police escort to a crop farm about 20 minutes out of town.

“It was beautiful to see her run out in this field and see her silhouette go away. We’re very pleased it was successful,” said Kathy Diekman, the director of the Chahinkapa Zoo, which helped relocate the moose.

The animal turned up on campus on Tuesday morning, prompting a warning by police to stay away from the moose. It later got into the old UND Memorial Stadium through an open gate, and authorities closed the entrance and kept the animal there through the day, to keep it away from people and traffic in Grand Forks.

Diekman said the school’s assistant police chief then called the zoo for help. The 

 is in Wahpeton, N.D., about 120 miles south of Grand Forks, just west of Fergus Falls. Diekman and some of her staff, including the zoo’s veterinarian, Dakota Veterinary Hospital’s Tim Matz and curator Tom Schmaltz headed up the highway.

They arrived to find the moose had calmed down and gotten used to being in the football stadium — at least as much as a moose could. Diekman said it was immediately apparent that it was too dangerous to try and get the young female out of town under her own power and that they were going to have to sedate her and relocate her.

Diekman said that they’d had some experience with relocating animals in the past, “but never a moose before,” and brought a trailer, a dart gun and veterinary supplies to care for the animal. “We had this scenario in mind, because of the inability to herd a wild animal through town,” Diekman said.

She said Matz darted the moose, waited for her to lie down, then immediately went to work: it took a crowd of about 10 people to gather around the animal, pick her up and load her into a waiting livestock trailer.

She was, Diekman said, “a heavy animal. It took everybody to lift her into the trailer, where we administered antibiotics and a reversal drug.” Diekman said the moose was actually up and on her feet before they drove the trailer off campus, ready to travel.

“We wanted to make sure she was up and alert, but not in there too long to stress,” Diekman said.

The trailer, led by police, went to a farm outside of town, pulled into a corn field and the Chahinkapa Zoo staff opened the door.

“We were very happy. We were just giddy that this was successful and we’re like, ‘Be careful,” Diekman said. “But, yay!”

Environmental News

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Tim Nelson

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A moose that spent most of Tuesday munching on grass at the University of North Dakota’s Memorial Stadium has been returned to the wild alive. 

Courtesy of Chahinkapa Zoo

A man sits with a tranquilized moose that dwarfs him

Moose returned safely to the wild after spending unplanned day trip at UND stadium

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