Atka, the 2-year-old Alaska moose at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, was orphaned in the wild outside Anchorage, Alaska. He was brought to Colorado in 2020, weighs about 750 pounds, and might
Atka, the 2-year-old Alaska moose at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, was orphaned in the wild outside Anchorage, Alaska. He was brought to Colorado in 2020, weighs about 750 pounds, and might
Atka, the 2-year-old Alaska moose at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, was orphaned in the wild outside Anchorage, Alaska. He was brought to Colorado in 2020, weighs about 750 pounds, and might
Roadkill moose program that fed families ends
Donations dry up, volunteers scarce amid pandemic By Matt Vasilogambros, Stateline.org
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2 Photos Laurie Speakman, The Moose Lady, spent the past eight years collecting roadkill moose for local Alaska charities. (Laurie Speakman/Pew Charitable Trusts) Photo Gallery
It always broke Laurie Speakman’s heart to hear that another moose was struck and killed on the rural highway near her home in Soldotna, Alaska, on the western end of the Kenai Peninsula. But it also warmed her to know that several local families were about to get fed.
For the past eight years, Speakman, lovingly called “The Moose Lady” by her friends and neighbors, was one of the people state troopers called at all hours of the night as a volunteer driver for the nonprofit Alaska Moose Federation. Often in below-zero temperatures, she drove to the crash site in her truck, wrapped a cable around the enormous ungulate and lifted the