It is confirmed: A mother moose and her yearling were legally harvested by a hunter just a few hundred yards from one of Summit’s most populated neighborhoods.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife tells Krystal 93 the hunter shot both animals Sunday, Oct. 7 near the Salt Lick trail system, which is directly south of Wildernest. A nearby local says it happened within sight of homes and a popular trailhead.
The adult moose was intentional. The yearling was accidental.
“The cow (female) was a legal harvest, but the yearling was not (determined to be a mistaken harvest),” Rachael Gonzales with CPW writes in an email. “The meat for the yearling was donated so it did not go to waste.”
CPW does not prosecute accidental kills.
For days on Facebook people debated if this kill was a hunter or a predator, like a mountain lion, and argued the ethics of hunting near homes and busy trails.
This hunter had one legal tag for rifle season in Summit, which runs from Oct. 1 to Oct. 14. The hunter reported both kills the same day.