Moose bomb: Wyoming officials blow up rotting carcass

JACKSON, Wyo. — A dead moose in Wyoming probably won’t attract grizzly bears now that forest officials have used explosives to blow the rotting meat to smithereens.

Bridger-Teton National Forest wildlife managers don’t normally do anything about dead wildlife in the huge backcountry area that borders Yellowstone National Park. But they worried the big carcass could draw dangerous animals to a nearby trail that’s popular with hikers, hunters and dog-walkers.

So they used 100 pounds (45 kilograms) of explosives last Friday to obliterate the carcass so it couldn’t be scavenged by bears, wolves and mountain lions, the Jackson Hole News & Guide reported.

“There’s nothing left,” state game warden Kyle Lash told the newspaper . “It’s kind of a slick way to get rid of a carcass.”

A day after the blast, a News & Guide journalist on Saturday encountered a heavy stench and bits of meat on the trail.

A biologist had determined the full-grown bull moose suffered from artery worms and likely pneumonia, and had died of natural causes.

Using explosives to get rid of the carcass was more practical and less gruesome than cutting up and hauling out about half a ton (half a metric ton) of rotting meat, forest officials said.

The national forest’s workers use explosives to dispose of large animal carcasses every year or so but the exploded carcasses are usually dead cattle or horses, not dead wildlife.