Officials from the Ministry of Natural Resources were on standby this weekend for further sightings of the moose that found itself in Markham on Friday.
Officials tracked the moose around the Markham area for several hours on Friday as it dashed between streets, through fences, and across backyards in the Greater Toronto Area city.
The last confirmed sighting of the moose was Friday afternoon in the area of Kennedy Rd. and 16th Ave. After that officials believe the moose may have bedded down for the night.
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Though they were hoping to tranquilize the moose and transport it back to the wild Friday, the search was called off as the light began to fade for safety reasons.
The search was not resumed over the weekend, but officials were ready to step in if needed.
“Right now we’re just waiting to see what happens and hoping it’s moved on,” Jolanta Kowalski, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, said of the relatively unique situation Sunday morning.
“Every few years there might be a bear that comes a little further south than normal, but I think for a moose it was unusual,” she said.
It’s likely the moose travelled into the GTA along river corridors from one of the moose populations in the Gravenhurst and Bracebridge area, or near Minden and the southwest edge of Algonquin Provincial Park, or the area near the Kawartha Highlands Park north of Peterborough, Kowalski said.
While it’s unknown which population the moose hails from, Kowalski said if officials had been able to tranquilize it Friday it would have been moved at least 90 km away to more suitable habitat “than what it’s wandered into down here in the Greater Toronto Area,” she said.
With files from Brennan Doherty and Annie Arnone
Ainslie Cruickshank Ainslie Cruickshank is a former staff reporter for Star Vancouver.
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