In September of 2019 during the rutting (i.e. mating) season I spotted a massive bull moose up along the Animas River northeast of Silverton in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. He was significantly larger than any of the dozens of other bulls that I saw that year or have seen since. I went back every morning for over a week as he hung out with two cows (female) moose in the willows and the beaver ponds along the river. Other smaller bulls would sometimes venture close as he kept a close eye on his two cows, and he would chase them off. Then one day they were gone as they likely headed down the valley for the winter.
I kept an eye out for the old bull, but I didn’t see him again until the next rutting season in September of 2020. It was clearly the same bull as none of the other bulls were nearly as big with as large of a rack and thus none of them could challenge him. Like deer and elk, bull moose drop their antlers in the winter and regrow them in the spring and summer. His massive rack had an additional point on each side, but otherwise he looked the same, although perhaps moving a little slower. This time he showed up at a beaver pond right in town (Silverton) with a single cow and her calf. They hung around the pond for several days feeding in and around the pond before once again disappearing for the winter.
This spring and summer I kept an eye out for the old bull, and while I saw plenty of moose in the area, I didn’t see the big old bull. I wondered if perhaps he hadn’t survived the winter? Then in early September I ran into a couple of hunters who told me that they saw the largest bull moose that they had ever seen up next to a creek right near timberline that morning. A made a couple of attempts to find him, even going up the steep drainage in the dark one morning, but I was unable to find the big bull that the hunters had seen.
Then on September 21st I got a text from a friend in town that she saw a huge bull moose moving rapidly down the river right near town. I raced over and spotted him as he disappeared into the willows. He reappeared shortly and I was able to photograph him in the cold early morning air with the condensation from his breath visible. There was a cow with a calf in the same area and it appeared that he was looking for the cow. I was certain that this was the same old bull that I had seen the past two years. By my count, his antlers had grown from 18 points in 2019 to 20 points in 2020 to 24 points in 2021. Everything else about him, however, suggested that he was the same big old bull growing even larger and more dominant.
On the night of September 22nd, one of the local sheriff’s deputies took a video of the old bull in someone’s front yard in Silverton late at night, and a friend posted it on Facebook the next day. That following day I spotted him a little ways up Mineral creek on the other side of town. He had apparently decided to move on in search of a mate, crossing through town late at night. When I spotted him on the 23rd he was following a different cow with a calf. I went back to the beaver pond where he had been the previous day and the cow with the calf that he had been following were still there. When I looked at my photos after I downloaded them to my computer, however, I saw that his right eye was oozing fluid and the eyeball was white and opaque. It was clear that he was at least temporarily blind in his right eye. I guessed that it was an injury, possibly from sparring with another bull, but who knows what caused it.
I returned to the same area over the next few days and spotted him a couple more times, always following the cow with the calf. A few days later, however, I spotted the same cow and calf, but the old bull was no longer nearby. It seemed that perhaps he was having trouble finding a mate this season?
I kept an eye out for him over the next several days, but I failed to spot him. Then on the morning of October 3rd I got a text from another friend that a hunter with a tag (i.e. permit) to take a moose was out looking for him. I had previously heard that Colorado Parks and Wildlife had issue a single tag for a bull moose in the region. Tags are not given for cows or calves, it has to be an adult bull moose. I went to the area where my friend said the hunter was, and I saw him with his blaze orange jacket and hat down in the willows by the creek. A large bull moose actually walked past the hunter about 50’ away, but he ignored it as it seemed he was specifically looking for the big old bull.
There were a couple of other hunters wearing camouflage nearby, so I walked over to talk to them. They confirmed that they were with the hunter who had the moose tag. The hunter with the tag was an older Colorado resident that had been hunting for many years, which increased his chances of getting the moose tag, however, it is still a longshot as relatively few are given out in the state, with only one in the region. The other hunters included his son and two other friends that were there to help him with spotting as well as dealing with the carcass if successful, but the older hunter had the tag so he had to be the one to make the kill. Tags cannot be transferred to another person.
After talking to the hunters I exchanged phone numbers with one of them and asked if they would let me know if and when the hunter with the tag brought down the old bull. The next morning, I got a text that he had shot and killed the old bull the previous evening. I called him up and arranged to meet them and to see the old bull one last time. I also got to meet the hunter that brought him down. While I was a bit sad that I wouldn’t see and photography the old bull again, I’m glad that I got to meet the hunter. He was also glad to hear more about the old bull. That same day I photographed another rather large bull moose in the area, so I’m certain that another, or possibly several other bulls, will take his place.
While I personally chose to hunt wildlife with only a camera, there are a lot of hunters in Silverton, and many of them are good friends of mine. Adult moose like the old bull don’t have any natural predators, so hunters help keep the population in check. When I was growing up in Colorado, we didn’t have moose in the state as they had been hunted to extinction statewide. They were originally reintroduced into the North Park area near Walden in 1978 and then between 1991 and 1992 close to 100 moose were released in southern Colorado near Creede. The moose in the Silverton area came from those released near Creede. Until a bit over a decade ago, a moose sighting in the Silverton area was a rare occurrence. The population has expanded rapidly, however, both locally and state wide making moose viewing a popular tourist attraction. Colorado Parks and Wildlife estimates that the population of moose is approaching 3000 in the state. I personally have seen and identified nearly two dozen moose in the Silverton region, and up to 16 in one day, with many more than that likely around. I also identified at least six different moose calves both this spring in the area. So while the old bull won’t be around, there will continue to be plenty of opportunities to see moose browsing the willows in the mountain valleys of the San Juans as well as throughout the state.