{"id":68856,"date":"2025-07-17T03:25:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T03:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/68856\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T03:25:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T03:25:10","slug":"stubborn-moose-refuses-to-budge-keeping-popular-ny-hiking-trail-closed-for-more-than-a-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/68856\/","title":{"rendered":"Stubborn moose refuses to budge, keeping popular NY hiking trail closed for more than a month"},"content":{"rendered":"

Moose it or lose it!<\/p>\n

A popular upstate New York hiking trail has been closed for more than a month due to a stubborn bull moose refusing to move.<\/p>\n

State officials had no choice but to shutter Goodman Mountain Trailhead in Tupper Lake on June 6 after the large animal set up camp near the summit of the 1.5-mile-long path \u2014 and has since shown no signs of budging, according to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe same moose continues to reside on or near the trail and continues to demonstrate unusual behaviors,\u201d DEC officials said in a press release. <\/p>\n

\"MooseDEC officials believe the moose might be sick, prompting it to remain in the same spot for more than a month. flickr\/nysdec<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is suspected that this moose may have an underlying illness influencing behavior as it continues to remain on or near the trail and is not responsive to attempts to move it off the trail.\u201d <\/p>\n

Officials said the herculean beast, which can weigh up to 1,200 pounds and stand at a towering six-feet, has shown no signs of aggression \u2014 but can become dangerous when approached too closely. <\/p>\n

Hikers first spotted the colossal moose back in May along the trail in Horseshoe Lake Wild Forest. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t bother anybody,\u201d Martha Quilliam told Times Union<\/a>, adding that she returned to the trail two weeks later on May 30 only to find the land mammal in the same spot.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was curious, more than anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HikerThe hiking trail will remain off-limits until it is deemed safe again. Cavan for Adobe \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Environmental conservation staff opted days later to keep narrow summit off-limits<\/a> following failed attempts to get the moose to take a hike. Rangers are now reportedly stationed at the path\u2019s entrance to turn people away until it is deemed safe again.<\/p>\n

While moose sightings in the Adirondack Park are common during May and June, one staying put for this long is highly unusual, DEC wildlife biologist Jim Stickles told the outlet. <\/p>\n

\u201cBy the time hikers see the moose, they are often in the immediate vicinity of, and potentially too close to, the animal,\u201d he warned. <\/p>\n

\u201cAdult moose are large, wild animals, and they do not always show fear of people. People often mistake this behavior as the animal being tame, and approach too closely.\u201d<\/p>\n

The government agency reported<\/a> roughly 600-700 moose sightings in the Adirondack region in 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Moose it or lose it! A popular upstate New York hiking trail has been closed for more than…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":68857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[44055,3425,9427,405,159,67,132,68,1154,837],"class_list":{"0":"post-68856","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-adirondacks","9":"tag-animals","10":"tag-hiking","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us","16":"tag-us-news","17":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114866443052339169","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}