Cheyenne Mountain Zoo announces passing of 6-year-old Alaska moose, Atka

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo (CMZoo) says its six-year-old Alaska moose, Atka, has passed away.

According to CMZoo, the care team had been addressing ongoing issues to Atka sinace August, including a fix to his hoof. Atka only had seven toes compared to the usual eight for moose. The zoo says over three years ago, he had a toe removed to prevent a progressive bone degradation in his hoof.

The zoo says that when the new issues first came up, Atka responded well to the initial support but the rubber support that was added came loose on Sunday. According to CMZoo, Atka went under anesthesia on Monday to put a new support on. Though he has responded well to anesthesia in the past, the zoo says he needed help to recover on Monday.

Atka passed away on Tuesday morning.

Atka came to the zoo in July 2020 as an eight-week-old orphan who, the zoo says, would not have survived on his own. He weighed 91 pounds when he came in and grew to 1,300 pounds. His arrival came just two months after the zoo's last moose, Tahoma, passed away at 13 due to age-related issues.

CMZoo says Atka was known as the "Prince of Rocky Mountain Wild"," because of the zoo team's response to doing everything" because of the zoo team's efforts to care for him. Zoo staff say he was known when he was younger for his playful nature that developed into sparring with trees and special enrichment during rut.

According to officials, rut is a time during the fall season when a male moose's testosterone will peak and they see higher energy levels.

“I’m really going to miss watching him during rut,” Jenna Schmidt, senior animal keeper in Rocky Mountain Wild, said in a press release. “He would shed the velvet on his antlers and pretty intensely spar with barrels and just get really wild. I loved to see that impressive side of him, and I was proud we could provide an environment that allowed him to express those wild instincts. I also loved seeing him in the snow. On a cold winter day, I’ll think of him standing in the snow and watching his warm breath swirl into the cold air. He was magical.”

The zoo says Atka was part of a learning process through his hoof care. Officials say his care was unique, and visitors to the giraffe care workshops would often ask about Atka, because of how rare it is for a moose to participate in hoof care.

“Atka had been living well with an extraordinary challenge,” Dave Ruhl, CMZoo president & CEO, said in a press release. “Our team spent years managing his care and finding creative ways to give him a great life. That meant specialized hoof care, custom solutions, outside expertise, and a team willing to keep asking what else we could do for him. Despite all of that care, we didn’t get the ending we wanted."

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