MENAN Following an incident earlier this month, Idaho Fish and Game is reminding the public of the need of avoiding contact with wildlife.
Menan resident Josh Anderson and his spouse were fishing in early June 2025 when they spotted a young moose on the gravel bar.
It was still sobbing for its mother when we returned two hours later. He remembers that we photographed it and continued fishing till nightfall. After three hours or so, we went back up, and it was still sobbing for its mother outside.
Anderson claimed that as soon as he parked on the gravel bar after they had pulled up, the baby moose approached him and began sucking on his jacket and licking him.
Since the mother hadn’t been there for three hours, he claimed, they were concerned.
“We decided that we could take it, and we knew some people who could give it goat’s milk in bottles,” Anderson said. Concerned that coyotes would eat it, we picked it up and brought it to them.
Anderson claimed that he bottle-fed the newborn moose that night and called the Idaho Fish and Game office as soon as it opened the next morning. He claimed to have informed them of the situation and to have picked up the animal.
Even if the mother wasn’t around, they advised us at that point that it was quite reckless to do so, Anderson recounted. The following day, the Fish and Game returned it to the location where we had picked it up and left it there.
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According to Anderson, Idaho Fish and Game advised him that people should never take up wild animals.
We’ve discovered that you should never touch them and it’s not something you should do,” Anderson added.
Idaho Fish and Game’s regional communications manager, James Brower, repeated that.
Don’t touch, but look. He underlined that infant animals should be left alone. In most situations, mom lives nearby. Wildlife mothers frequently leave their young alone for several hours at a time as they forage or ward off predators. She is frequently simply out of sight and will come back when she feels secure.
According to Brower, a baby animal’s best chance of surviving is to give its mother the chance to return because she is the animal kingdom’s expert.
Brower also advised taking a GPS point and calling the Idaho Fish and Game Department if you see something alarming.
Click here to learn more about the significance of seeing wildlife without touching it.
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