(Radio Iowa) – That moose is still on the loose in northwest Iowa. D-N-R conservation officer Joey Yarkosky has covered Clay and O’Brien counties for eight years and says it’s a first for him. “It’s really unusual, especially for Iowa,” Yarkosky says. “Having breeding populations of moose, you’ve really gotta go up to northern Minnesota. They would have moose that would wander, especially a young bull like this, would wander south in different territory, so to make it all the way down in Iowa, it’s really pretty unique and he’s still on the move, so we’ll see where he heads to from here.”

Last week, the moose was photographed on the outskirts of Sioux Center. It appears he made a turn at Orange City and headed east, being spotted in recent days near Ruthven and Gillett Grove. Yarkosky is pleading with the public to keep its distance in hopes the moose can find its way home. “We hope so, that’s always our hope for a positive outcome, especially if we get some unique species of animals we usually don’t see,” Yarkosky says. “We always hope that they stay away from roads and people are alert as well, too, and we just hope that they give it space and then he could return back to his habitat, where it came from.”

Moose in a field in Sioux County. (Sioux Center PD Facebook photo)

He says not only is it disrespectful to crowd the moose, it’s also dangerous.