The Winnipeg Sun It's probably the first time some Winnipeggers have seen a moose on the loose without hockey skates and a stick. A wayward bull led police and natural resources officers on a rare pursuit and standoff in a St. Vital neighbourhood for nearly three hours yesterday. The hulking animal was cornered and tranquilized at 8:30 a.m. in a strip mall parking lot after it wandered through yards and attracted shocked residents out of bed. "There were kids in their pajamas wiping the sleep out of their eyes so they could see the moose," said Gail McDougall, who works in the mall at Sobeys. "The poor thing was just paralysed by the flashing lights and the crowd of people. I think it was scared because it wasn't moving for a long time." Cops spotted the beast about 5:30 a.m. on John Forsyth Road and followed it to Sobeys at Dakota Street and Warde Avenue, where it was corralled by police cruisers and tranquilized by Winnipeg animal services officers. The sedated moose was later released into its natural habitat at Sandilands Provincial Forest southeast of Winnipeg. Police and conservation officers didn't take any chances because the unpredictable animals can trample a person to death or kill motorists in a collision. IMPOSING BULL "The only other option we had was to put it down, so we were prepared to do whatever it took to save this moose," Winnipeg police spokeswoman patrol Sgt. Shelly Glover said. The imposing bull was two to three years old and had an incomplete rack of antlers several centimetres long. Moose rarely end up in cities but it's possible the animal followed a river or stream into Winnipeg. "Periodically, they do show up. Perhaps it made a wrong turn," said Dr. Vince Crichton, a senior scientist with Manitoba Conservation. Most of the 35,000 moose in the province live in northern Manitoba or national and provincial parks and forests, he said. In 2003, a male romped around a go-kart track at Grand Prix Amusements and was steered away from Winnipeg by natural resources officers. Meanwhile, there were also reports yesterday of a pig running loose on the Perimeter Highway near Saskatchewan Avenue about 4:30 p.m.

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