The search is on for a foster mother for a moose calf that was found wandering around Royal Oak in northwest Calgary on May 27.
The calf, just a few days old, was captured by police and animal services when the mother was nowhere to be found.
Staff from Medicine River Wildlife Centre in Spruce View, Alta. brought the calf back to a residence in Bearspaw where it was believed to have been last spotted with its mother and attempted to lure the mother back by playing moose calf distress calls.
This method was employed in the evening on May 28 and in the morning of May 29 with no success.
“Chances are the mother is just too far away to hear the calls,” said Carol Kelly, executive director at Medicine River Wildlife Centre.
“We’ll take the calf back to the centre now and attempt to find a foster mother.”
Kelly said it is likely the calf got separated from its mother when it became scared by either people or automobiles in the area, and caused the calf to run into the subdivision in northwest Calgary.
The staff at the centre will utilize the same method they tried at the Bearspaw residence, by playing distress calls from the centre near Innisfail with the intent of luring a mother moose to foster the calf.
“We’ve done this before, we never raise the calves ourselves,” said Kelly.
“There’s about 450 acres of moose country near our site and we have the advantage of having trail cameras that can spot when there is a mother moose hanging the enclosure so that we can introduce her to the calf.”
In this instance, Medicine River Wildlife Centre will be attaching a transmitter to the calf that lasts for up to two years, in order to track whether or not the calf is taken in by the foster mother.
“What this does is it allows us to verify the method,” said Kelly. “The mother may take the calf at first and people will ask us whether or not she takes care of it afterwards and if this actually works.”
The centre uses the same method with other orphaned species.
