BANFF – A female moose was struck and killed by the Rocky Mountaineer train earlier this month.
Parks Canada wildlife specialists went to the scene west of Castle Mountain junction on May 1 and found the dead moose that was reported by CP staff.
There were reports of a yearling moose with its mother in the area, but there was no sign of the young one at the scene.
“That’s all we have in terms of details, that’s all we have reported to us, and we haven’t had any reports of that yearling since,” said Jon Stuart-Smith, a wildlife management specialist for Lake Louise, Yoho and Kootenay.
“A yearling calf is able to function on its own, and at this point we have no reason to be concerned that it couldn’t make it on its own, but we have no information on this yearling or what happened.”
Last summer, a female moose with two young ones was seen regularly between the Lake Louise townsite and the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. The moose and her young ones had also been seen along the Bow Valley Parkways earlier this year.
Stuart-Smith said Parks Canada is unsure whether this is the same female moose that was killed on the train tracks on May 1.
“In terms of identifying which animal this is, it’s not known,” he said.
A study in the 1990s concluded there wasn’t a definable Bow Valley moose population, but rather a constant trickle of dispersing individuals arriving in the valley from adjacent watersheds. Moose sightings remain rare.
According to Parks Canada’s database of known human-caused wildlife mortalities, 36 moose were killed in Banff National Park between 2006 and 2017 – 19 on the train tracks and 17 on Trans-Canada Highway or Bow Valley Parkway.
Of those, 13 were adult females, 11 were adult males and nine were yearlings. The sex of the remaining three could not be identified.
A spokesperson for Rocky Mountaineer said the train crew reported hitting an animal that day, but it was reported as an elk.
“As with anything that occurs on the rail lines we travel, the train crew reports the incident to Rail Traffic Control, in this case to CP,” said Nicole Ford, communications director for Rocky Mountaineer. “CP then notifies Parks Canada.”
