Marooned Moose

BRUNSWICK — Dozens of wildlife watchers flocked to the Frank J. Wood bridge this morning after a young moose landed on the rocky island below the dam between Brunswick and Topsham.“He’s beautiful,” said Brunswick resident Sue Hamilton. “If he came over the falls, it’s miraculous he didn’t break anything.”“It’s crazy to see a moose out on a little island like that,” said Hamilton’s brother Jim Merritt. “I just hope they leave him alone.”That’s exactly what officials plan to do.

Game wardens suspect the moose did come over the dam, and also think it’s the same moose sighted around Topsham during the past three months.The marooned moose was first spotted early this morning, prompting about 15 calls to Sagadahoc County dispatch and about 40 to the Brunswick Police Department. Communications Officer Mike Carter called Maine State Police, which dispatched Maine game warden Doug Kulis of Georgetown.Kulis said today that wardens have decided the moose is fine on the island, with plenty of vegetation to eat, and any attempt to rescue him could make the situation worse. Today, the water level was 2 feet over the dam, he said.“There’s such a huge volume of water coming through right now, especially on one side of the island,” he said of the dam. “If we went on the island and tried to save it, and he went away from us, with the hydraulics there, he would drown. On the other side (rescue is) possible, but if a large volume of water came through, he’d end up in Brunswick and we’d have a very tired moose.”Wardens can’t use a tranquilizer gun because the moose could wander into the water before it fell; nor can a helicopter help, because of nearby power lines.Operators of the nearby dam and others farther up the Androscoggin River expect the water level to drop by 25 percent overnight, Kulis said, and then significantly more in the next four to seven days, even if we have a little rain.“If that happens, the moose will be able to walk right over to Topsham,” he said. “It’s not sick and it’s not injured. We’ve seen him walking and eating. It’s just one of those moose that’s a year-and-a-half old, and trying to learn to be a moose. He hasn’t really figured it out yet. We don’t want to try to rescue him and have something go bad.”Sue Hamilton and her brother heard about the marooned moose from friends. Like so many other moose oglers, they headed down to the bridge to watch the male moose scramble over his new rocky domain surrounded by the swollen, swirling waters of the Androscoggin River.