A cow moose that was nursing four calves in Delta Junction and was “adopted” by area residents died without warning last week in a yard the family of five ungulates had been frequenting all summer.

“She just dropped dead,” said Lori Meek, whose yard the moose died in.
The moose and four calves had been hanging out in Meeks’s yard off Remington Drive, a residential area about 10 miles North of Delta, on and off since early June. The moose liked to lounge in a kiddie pool Meek said she kept filled in her yard.

On August 19, Meek and photographer Dwight Phillips who lives a few miles away, were watching the cow as it lay in the pool when it suddenly began acting strange. “It was letting its head roll around the edge of the pool and its tongue was hanging out; it was drooling like a dog,” said Phillips. “I’ve never seen a moose do that.” A worried Meek first tried calling a local veterinarian before notifying the Alaska State troopers, who contacted the Alaska Department of Fish in Game in Delta Junction.
Meek, meanwhile, went back outside in time to see the moose get up out of the pool and walk over to where she had bedded down the night before.

“She just sort of flopped down,” said Meek. A few minutes later, the moose was dead. A former medic, Meek said it looked almost like the moose had just had a heart attack. “It was just a sudden onset,” she said. “She hadn’t been staggering around or anything like that.”

Biologists don’t believe all four calves belonged to the cow. The prevailing theory among moose experts is that the cow had a set of twins of her own and inherited another pair from a cow it encountered and chased off while protecting her own calves.

But the cow had been caring for the four calves since early June, when the five some was first spotted near in a residential section along the Clearwater River. Local residents like Meek have kept an eye for the family of five moose all summer.

The moose’s death not only leaves the 2 ½ month-old calves as orphans, it adds to a moose mystery that has unfolded in Delta Junction over the past 6 months.

Earlier this winter, state wildlife biologists received reports of several moose dropping dead around Delta Junction. Two of these moose were reportedly stumbling around before they died, prompting department officials to test those and several other dead moose found in the Delta area to determine if some kind of parasite had made its way to Alaska and infected the moose population. ADF&G veterinarian Kimberly Beckman wasn’t able to pinpoint any kind of pattern in those moose deaths, however. Biologists took tissue, brain and fecal samples of the cow moose that had died last week in an attempt to determine why it died. “At this point we don’t have a clue”, said wildlife biologist Steve Dubois, adding that there was no evidence the moose had been shot or hit by a vehicle and the cow appeared to be in good shape. The cow moose wasn’t salvaged for charity because nobody knew why it died, said wildlife technician Dave Davenport with ADF&G in Delta. “You don’t want to give away a moose that may have something wrong with it,” he said. For Meek, the cow’s death was devastating. After contacting wildlife officials earlier this summer to find out how to get the moose out of her yard, she became attached to the four calves almost as if they were her own children. She gave each one a name. They were Jane, Lina, Sherry and Jennifer, the latter which was the runt of the group. While moose experts seriously doubt if all 4 calves were birthed by the same cow, Meek has no doubt.

“After watching how they act together the past two months, I believe they were all hers,” said Meek. “That’s just my opinion.”

The calves, now pushing three months, will be left to fend for themselves. While state wildlife officials sometimes rescue new-born moose that are found orphaned, that’s not the case with older calves, said Davenport.
“We’re going to let nature take its course,” he said.

At last report though, nature wasn’t being kind to the four calves.

On Wednesday, one of the calves showed up at Meek’s home with a broken back leg but left before a biologist and state trooper arrived on scene, she said. The next day, a neighbor found another one of the calves lying in his garden, apparently on the verge of starvation, Meek said. A neighbor took the moose to the Fish and Game office in Delta and its fate was unknown.

Meek has been feeding the orphaned calves vegetables and fruit until she was told it was illegal by wildlife officials. She said she felt “obligated” to help them since the cow died in her yard.

To make matters worse for the orphaned calves, there is also a bear wondering around their neighborhood, Meek said.

“This isn’t going to have a happy ending, she said.” “This is just a lousy break for em.”