Moose Visit Cancels Baseball

It was a beautiful day for baseball this morning in Minot. But the youth league games were cance...  More »

It was a beautiful day for baseball this morning in Minot. But the youth league games were cancelled at the Sertoma Fields on North Hill. The reason - right there - two young Moose had decided to make the fields their playground for the morning. The moose were discovered on the complex as players and officials arrived this morning. And they caused a unique cancellation. (Scott Collins, Minot Rec. Dept.) We can cancel games because of rain and lightning and everything else, but I've never had to cancel becaues of moose. (This is a first?) This is a first. Park officials opened several gates in an effort to get the two moose reunited - they were on opposite sides of a fence. And then, the plan was to block traffic in the area and try to herd the pair back toward more wild surroundings. Greg Gullickson of the North Dakota Game and Fish Department says such moose encounters are becoming more common as the animal's population increases. (Greg Gullickson, ND Game & Fish Dept.) Moose are becoming more common in North Dakota, we have more hunting opportunities for moose in North Dakota. They're repopulating the prairie but one of the things about moose is that they really don't have any natural predators in North Dakota so they are relatively unuaffected by humans, are kind of mellow creatures and just kind of lope along. Anytime we get them in or around town it is a situation where we need to make sure to get them out. In the end, the moose were convinced to head away from town and back toward their rural homes. There were no injuries, although one police officer was bumped to the ground by a driver at a roadblock. He was not hurt.  « Less