A moose that had wandered into a yard in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, stayed
for just long enough to have residents become fond of the animal, died
unexpectedly Thursday morning.
by John
Tyburski
Copyright © Daily
Digest News, KPR Media, LLC. All rights reserved.
“He was
just laying flat down…just completely flat.”
So said
Leonard Wendinger of the moose from Northwoods that had taken up temporary
residence in the backyard of his Sleepy Eye home in Minnesota. He found the
moose dead on Thursday morning after wandering hundreds of miles to get from
its own home to Wendinger’s many days prior.
The
animal, which stood about seven feet tall, feasted on apples from a tree in the
yard and looked healthy.
“Yeah, he
cleaned it up. High on the branches and everything. They were down [the
branches]. It was so heavy from apples that bent way down,” Wendinger said.
“Until last night, that one trip, it never got closer than that apple tree.”
He said
for the first few days, the moose kept its distance from the house. Tracks in
the snow provided insight into the animal’s movements. The moose left the
property for a few days last weekend but returned on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the
moose moved in much closer to the Wendingers’ house.
“It never
came up that close to the house. He could have come up on the porch. Like one
of our daughter’s says, pretty soon it will be up on the porch like a dog,
sleeping,” Verna, Leonard’s wife, lightheartedly remarked.
Verna said
the family had become fond of the long-legged interloper and said they would
miss it.
The
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources concluded that the animal did not
show evidence of being hit by a car or shot, but a necropsy is pending at the
University of Minnesota’s veterinary laboratory. The cause of death will be
revealed in a few weeks.
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