2 children attacked by moose 4 days apart in a Colorado town

CNN
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A four-year-old boy and an eight-year-old girl were attacked and injured by moose four days apart in a Colorado town.

The boy was at a playground near Stanley Park in Estes Park, Colorado, around 1:30 p.m. on Monday when a female elk “suddenly attacked and kicked him multiple times,” Colorado Parks and Wildlife said in a news release Tuesday. Two elk calves were hiding near the boy’s playground, the news release said.

While the elk was chased away by a family member, the boy was taken to a hospital and later released.

A Colorado Parks and Wildlife officer arrived on scene and harassed several elk in the area with “non-lethal beanbag ammunition” to force them to leave the park, the news release said.

Kara Van Hoose, a spokeswoman for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, told CNN on Thursday that the moose had left the area and the agency had no further reports on their whereabouts.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife “manages 42 state parks, all of Colorado’s wildlife, more than 300 state wildlife refuges, and a variety of recreational programs.”

The Stanley Park playground has been closed indefinitely since the incident and parts of the Lake Estes Loop trail are closed. Signs have been posted in the area warning visitors of aggressive elk, the agency said.

Four days earlier, an 8-year-old girl riding her bike in Estes Park around 1 p.m. was attacked and trampled several times by an elk, Colorado Parks and Wildlife said in a press release at the time. She was also taken to a hospital and released the same day.

A Colorado Parks and Wildlife officer later found an elk and calf in the area. The elk became aggressive toward the officer, who tranquilized it with non-lethal beanbag bullets.

The calf in question was requested for testing by the agency’s health laboratory, Van Hoose said, noting that the adult female elk was not euthanized and that the beanbag cartridges did not injure the elk.

According to the agency, none of the children had harassed the moose.

Van Hoose told CNN the agency does not believe the same elk was involved in both attacks.

“Calves are often hidden to protect them from predators, but that also means they are hiding from us as well. And that was the case in these cases because the children did not know the calves were nearby,” Van Hoose told CNN.

Both attacks prompted Estes Park to post a warning on its Facebook page on Monday, saying:

“Although they appear harmless, like male elk during rutting season, cows are extremely dangerous during calving season… The bird sanctuary along the Lake Estes Trail and the Stanley Park area are common locations where elk give birth, however, births can occur in any area. For safety reasons, it is important to heed ‘trail closed’ signs and take an alternate route. Be cautious in residential areas, as people have been injured in their homes when walking out the door and unknowingly getting between a bull elk and her calf,” the city wrote.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife points out that elk calving season begins in late spring and continues into early summer, so it’s best to leave the animals alone.

Moose are known to react aggressively to people they perceive as a threat to their immobile young.

“It’s innate. It’s just biology. So they (the moose) just react. They can’t think through situations logically. They don’t really have any emotions in that moment,” Van Hoose told CNN affiliate KCNC-TV. “It’s just a feeling of ‘something is threatening my child, I’m going to protect it.'”

However, it is common for calves to be found alone, as their mothers often go out to forage for food. The young are not “abandoned” and “it is best to leave newborn wild animals where their mother left them until she returns,” the agency warns.