Colorado Parks and Wildlife SW Region received a call on the night of Wednesday, February 9th, telling of an elk calf that managed to get itself stuck in an old culvert hole. District wildlife managers Andrew Taylor and Codi Inloes-Williams responded to the call and tranquilized the calf in order to calm it for removal. A truck winch was used to lift the calf from the hole, and a reversal drug was administered to relive the affects of the tranquilizer.
After a few moments, the elk stood and walked up a hillside. It is believed the herd was over the other side of the ridge.
“If there was a life-saving award for elk, Andrew and Codi would have earned it,” said area wildlife manager Brandon Diamond. “Pretty wild, great effort.” pic.twitter.com/UPtnXIcaKR
— CPW SW Region (@CPW_SW) February 11, 2022
I swear I’m writing a story about this organization doing good solid work at least once or twice a week. Last week they were working to revive an extinct big horn sheep heard, this week they’re saving elk calfs, and next week they’ll probably revive the entire Colorado ecosystem (I’m kidding, obviously, but if I woke up tomorrow to their twitter account having posted something along the lines of “yesterday, we successfully worked to regrow the entirety of the Colorado forests that were destroyed by forest fires in the past five years with only the kindness of our hearts”, I wouldn’t be all that surprised). Good work CPW!
Image Credit: CPW SW Region on Twitter