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July 02--PORTLAND -- A moose that found its way into Deering Oaks on Thursday morning took a wild tour through Maine's largest city before escaping into the woods behind Evergreen Cemetery.
The moose crossed busy Forest Avenue at least four times over the course of three hours, with public safety vehicles in hot pursuit. Four Portland police cruisers, two game wardens' trucks and a state wildlife biologist followed the animal in an effort to shepherd it out of the city unharmed.
If the moose had gone back onto Interstate 295, which it crossed to enter Deering Oaks, police would have had to consider shooting it for safety's sake, said Warden Eric Blanchard.
A moose in the road caused a five-car wreck Wednesday night on the Maine Turnpike in Kennebunk.
Portland's moose did not return to the highway, but it covered a lot of ground before it finally wandered into the thick woods behind the cemetery, to the relief of officials with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
"The biggest thing is, we want to get it out of Portland," said Blanchard, who started following the moose at 11:30 a.m. "Primarily, we're worried about people. It can only cross 295 so many times before its luck runs out."
An hour later, when the moose lingered in an area of reeds and bushes behind the Hannaford supermarket at Back Cove, wildlife biologist Scott Lindsay had a perfect shot at it with a tranquilizer gun. But Lindsay's dart gun jammed.
Lindsay had a second shot at the moose an hour later in Evergreen Cemetery, but missed, said Sgt. Tim Spahr of the Maine Warden Service. If it had been tranquilized, the moose could have been carted to a large wooded area outside the city.
Spahr said he believed the moose was a male, about 3 or 4 years old, though there was no time to examine it closely enough to be sure.
Before it finally escaped, dozens of people got a close look at the moose.
Greg Johnson and his business partner, Michael Smarc, were looking out the window of the apartment building they own across from Deering Oaks when they saw it.
"He said there was a moose," Johnson said. "At first I thought he was kidding. But I said, 'Take a picture, it'll be good on our website.'
"We'll put it there for advertising," he said, with 'City living in country setting.'"
Peter Gordon and his son, Chris, drove off I-295 to see the moose.
Jason St. Onge was joking about moose with his family as the Connecticut residents drove through Portland on vacation. Moments later, they saw the real thing on Forest Avenue.
"I looked out the window and said, 'Oh my God. It's a big moose,'" said St. Onge of Plainfield, Conn.
Ed Dionne, a park ranger for the city, said it was the third moose he has seen in Portland in two years.
This moose covered about 3 miles, from Deering Oaks to Back Cove to Cheverus High School on Ocean Avenue and, finally, across Forest and Stevens avenues to the cemetery.
the time it got there, Spahr said, its tongue was hanging out and it looked exhausted.
But there was no way it could be left unchaperoned before it got out of harm's way.
Staff Writer Deirdre Fleming can be contacted at 791-6452 or at:
