A bull elk that was stuck with a tire around its neck for two years has finally been freed by rescuers.
Colorado wildlife officers Scott Murdoch and Dawson Swanson were able to free the elk after successfully tranquilizing the animal. The four-year-old elk then had its antlers cut off, allowing the pair to remove the tire on Saturday evening.
Tweeting about the successful removal on the Colorado Parks Wildlife Twitter page, officers wrote: "The saga of the bull elk with a tire around its neck is over. Thanks to the residents just south of Pine Junction on CR 126 for reporting its location, wildlife officers were able to free it of that tire Saturday."
However, as reported by Indy100, Murdoch revealed that removing the tire was far from an easy job, saying: "It was tight removing it. It was not easy for sure, we had to move it just right to get it off because we weren’t able to cut the steel in the bead of the tire. Fortunately, the bull’s neck still had a little room to move.
"We would have preferred to cut the tire and leave the antlers for his rutting activity, but the situation was dynamic and we had to just get the tire off in any way possible."
And despite having the tire around its neck for two years, the rescuers were pleasantly surprised to see that the creature hadn't been left with any major complications. The elk was simply missing some fur and had a small, nickel-sized wound.
The tire combined with his antlers means that the elk is now free of roughly 35lbs of weight that it had been carrying.
The elk was first spotted with the tire around its neck back in July of 2019 by a wildlife officer who was on a sheep count. Since then, multiple photos and videos of the elk have been shared to social media.
Theorizing on how the elk got the tire on its neck in the first place, Murdoch said in a 2020 video that the animal probably got stuck in the tire before it had developed antlers. He added that although there are a number of ways the tire could have got stuck, he believes it probably occurred due to humans "artificially feeding" the wildlife in the area.
Nevertheless, it's great to see the elk finally free! Well done to the rescuers!