No wonder moose don't visit Nebraska very often.
An 1,100-pound moose, possibly the first known to be in the state in more than two years, was killed Friday after being hit by two vehicles south of Scottsbluff.
And joking aside, the drivers were lucky.
Although the accident caused a combined $11,500 in damage to their vehicles, neither was injured, the Nebraska State Patrol said Monday.
“The drivers are very fortunate,” said Dustin Darveau, wildlife biologist with the Panhandle office of the Nebraska Game & Parks Commission.
Moose have a higher center of gravity than whitetail deer, which means they're more likely to slide across the hood and into the windshield rather than of smacking against the grill and bouncing off.
The female moose was struck first by an SUV and then run over by a sedan around 8 p.m. Friday, said Russ McKeehan, superintendent of the nearby Wildcat Hills State Recreation Area .
By that time, Darveau said, “it was darker than dark.” The sun had set more than two hours earlier.
The SUV, a 2010 GMC Acadia driven by Troy Freeburg, 62, sustained about $3,500 in damage, according to the state patrol.
Freeburg was traveling south on Highway 71 toward his home in Bushnell when the accident occurred about 10 miles south of Scottsbluff.
The sedan, a 2001 Chrysler 300, was totalled, the state patrol said. It was driven by Jeannia Morris, 44, of Harrisburg, Neb.
Neither driver could be reached for comment Monday.
Word of the collision spread quickly, and Game & Parks conservation officer Scott Brandt's phone began ringing.
“Most people wanted to know if they could salvage it,” Brandt said. “It's kind of a novelty for one thing. And of the wild and big game, it's right up there -- one of the more desirable ones as far as meat goes.”
Brandt had to turn them down.
In Nebraska, moose are protected, which means it's illegal to kill them or possess body parts from one killed in the state. Besides, Brandt and McKeehan said, the taste of the meat most likely had been ruined by the damage from the accident.
The moose was so large, officials needed help removing it.
McKeehan said that Kelly Sandberg of Sandberg Implement provided a Bobcat loader. The moose was lifted onto a flatbed trailer and hauled to an “undisclosed” location.
The moose, about two to three years old, had been seen a few days earlier along the Wyoming border near Lyman.
In his 27 years with Game and Parks, Brandt said, this was only the fourth moose he can recall in the Panhandle. He said the last moose spotted in that region summered along Lake Minatare in 2008.
Nebraska generally is too warm and dry for moose, game and parks officials said. They are more common in mountainous states such as Wyoming and Montana, or where there are numerous lakes, such as Minnesota.
This moose probably was drawn to the area by the pines of the Wildcat Hills, Darveau said. It likely wouldn't have stayed long because there isn't enough food to sustain it.
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