Young elk stuck in mud couldn’t be pulled out by the antlers then came the four-wheeler

Bear found under porch of Colorado home is hazed away by wildlife officials

Wildlife officer William Miedema took a call from the U.S. Forest Service about this small bull being stuck. Miedema and fellow wildlife officer Tyler Cerny responded to the area and found the young bull elk stuck up to its neck in mud and unable to get out. pic.twitter.com/z9QPscMy0e

— CPW SW Region (@CPW_SW) December 14, 2022

A young bull elk got stuck in mud up to its neck in Colorado, and the photos of the rescue are harrowing.

They show the buck, covered antlers to hooves in a thick layer of dark mud, as he wades in the pool of mud near La Garita on Dec. 5. La Garita is near a volcanic field in the San Juan Mountains in southwestern Colorado.

Despite his small size, the young buck was too heavy for wildlife officers to pull out by hand, Colorado Parks and Wildlife said on Twitter.

When they’re fully grown, bull elks weigh around 700 pounds, according to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. They grow to be 8 feet long from nose to tail, the foundation says.

After failing to pull him out by the antlers, officers with Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s southwest region opted to pull him out with a four-wheeler. They secured ratchet straps to the base of his antlers and hooked them onto the back of the ATV.

Wildlife officials attached straps to the elk’s antlers in order to drag him out with an ATV Colorado Parks and Wildlife