Moosewatch.com

A yearling bull and his mom were in my yard this evening. This is the first time I’ve seen antlers on a yearling. I would venture to say that many bulls don’t have antlers until two years old since I’ve never seen any this small before. It’s probably a function of testosterone levels and can vary from bull to bull much like the onset of a beard in young men.

I was refilling the water in the ponds the other day for the first time this summer and forgot about it. So when I suddenly remembered I tore to the other end of the house to check the pond level from the window and even though I only have a glimpse of the pond through the aspen I was startled to see a large dark brown torso in the pond. So I grabbed the camera, ran outside and got these two shots for you.

The temps here are rising and Scarface spends most of his time in the shade of the evergreens where it is difficult for me to get a good shot of him. So it doesn’t make sense to keep running the webcam on him. I also made a decision several years ago that if a moose was in my yard at this time of year I would set April 1st as the cut off date for feeding. I don’t want to domesticate them or have them become dependent on me. The past couple of days I’ve only been able to have the webcam on early in the morning. The rest of the time he’s been out of view. So after Friday it is shutting down until next fall.

His rear end however only appears to be getting worse. I took this shot yesterday. If it is an infection I can only assume that it has gone to his blood stream by now and on to his organs. I believe the cream colored stuff is a puss. I expect this will shorten his life dramatically. Time will tell whether he makes it to next winter.

Edit: Vets are not allowed to administer to wildlife in this state. The Utah Dept of Wildlife Resources only seems to intervene when animals threaten humans or our homes.