Elk has had tire around its neck since youth. Even if it’s found, can it be freed?

An unusual search is underway in Colorado for an elk seen roaming the wilderness with a tire stuck around its neck.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife posted video of the predicament Saturday on Facebook, showing an expanding rack of antlers is forcing the bull to wear the tire indefinitely.

The elk, believed to be no more than 3 years old, may have survived like this since youth, state officials said in a video, which has been viewed more than 40,000 times as of Aug. 20.

The chief concern is a very real possibility other bulls may get their antlers trapped in the same tire while jousting for females during the fall rut season, officials said.

“One or both will end up dying,” Colorado wildlife officer Scott Murdoch said in the video. “It’s anybody’s guess how it (the tire) actually got on there. ...Generally, once we have animals that have things around their neck, they don’t come off very easily. ...We definitely want to track this elk down.”

The elk was first spotted by state wildlife officers in July 2019 in the Mount Evans Wilderness, a remote 74,000-acre area that includes two 14,000-foot mountain peaks, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

A half dozen other sightings have been reported since then, most of them on trail cameras, Murdoch said. Elk living that deep in the wilderness tend to be “more wild” and avoid humans whenever possible, he said.

“This elk is very difficult to find. Only two of the reports have been in person, one of which was from several miles away with a spotting scope,” Murdoch said in the video.

State wildlife experts believe it may be easier to catch the elk during the mating season, because bulls “have less inhibitions” when competing for females, he said. The elk will need to be tranquilized first, he said, and wildlife officers will either cut the tire off or cut the hardened antlers and slip the tire over the bull’s head, Murdoch said.

This story was originally published August 20, 2020 at 10:09 AM with the headline "Elk has had tire around its neck since youth. Even if it’s found, can it be freed?."