The moose population in the Silverton region of the San Juan Mountains has been thriving in recent years. At least six moose calves were born in the spring of 2021, and at least another six were born this year. I wrote about a female calf born in late May in my blog post “Dora the Baby Moose” as well as female twins born right near Silverton in my post “Anna and Elsa”. I recently confirmed that there was a second set of female twins born in the area, although I confused them for a while with Elsa and Anna. Unfortunately, my discovery that there are two sets of female twins, now around 4 months old, was the fact that while Elsa and Anna are both healthy, one of the other twins is crippled, unable to use her left rear leg. As a result, she hobbles on her three good legs dragging the other one along. The extent of the injury suggests that she was either born with this deformity or she had an accident, most likely the result of being hit by a vehicle.
A friend of mine suggested the name Rosie for the young, injured moose calf. Rosie seems to manage to hobble around on her three good legs, and she otherwise appears healthy. Of course, surviving winter in the San Juans will be a challenge with only three good legs. I expect that she will stay in the general area since it seems unlikely that she could travel a long distance. It is also unclear if her mother and sibling will stay nearby. They were around for a while when I was taking photographs, but then they took off leaving her alone. Hopefully her mother will continue to stay nearby over the winter.
A friend of mine suggested the name Rosie for the young, injured moose calf. Rosie seems to manage to hobble around on her three good legs, and she otherwise appears healthy. Of course, surviving winter in the San Juans will be a challenge with only three good legs. I expect that she will stay in the general area since it seems unlikely that she could travel a long distance. It is also unclear if her mother and sibling will stay nearby. They were around for a while when I was taking photographs, but then they took off leaving her alone. Hopefully her mother will continue to stay nearby over the winter.