A young moose toured Rensselaer County last week. It did not survive the rescue. Here is what to do if the next one turns up on Route 40.

The most-shared local story of the week had four legs. A yearling bull moose, somewhere north of 600 pounds, spent the weekend of September 26 and 27 roaming Rensselaer County, at one point crossing Interstate 90 in East Greenbush, before turning up Tuesday morning, September 29, near Burden Avenue and Mill Street in South Troy.

State Department of Environmental Conservation wildlife staff, with Troy Animal Control and police, tranquilized it there. It took about a dozen people to lift it onto a trailer. The plan was to drive it east and release it on the Rensselaer Plateau, the big forested block between Grafton and the Massachusetts line where moose actually belong. Overnight its condition deteriorated, and DEC euthanized it Wednesday. A necropsy will try to determine why; capture stress and the drugs themselves are hard on a large animal that has been running for days.

DEC pointed out the timing. Late September and October are the rut, when young bulls get pushed out by older ones and travel long distances looking for territory and mates. That is when they end up in places like South Troy, and it is also when they end up in Pittstown, Grafton and the back roads of Schaghticoke. Our stretch of the Hoosic valley is at the soft edge of moose country.

If one shows up on your road:

• Give it room, a lot of it. A moose is not a deer. It will stand its ground, and a cow with a calf or a bull in the rut can charge.
• Keep dogs inside. Dogs are the thing most likely to provoke one.
• Do not try to herd it, feed it, or get the photo from close range.
• If it is on or near a road, call 911; drivers on Route 40 at night will not see a dark animal six feet at the shoulder until it is in the windshield. Otherwise, report sightings to DEC’s Region 4 office in Schenectady. The agency tracks them.

Sources: WNYT and CBS6 reporting on the September 29 capture, and the Times Union on the September 30 euthanasia and DEC’s statements. Safety guidance is DEC’s standard advice for moose encounters.