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State police confirmed a new moose sighting, this time in Dutchess County.
"Yes, we responded to this," Trooper Melissa McMorris, a state police spokeswoman, said on Saturday. "When the troopers arrived, the moose wasn't in the area."
The moose was spotted along state Route 22 near Cricket Hill Road in Dover Plains. It was seen walking along the road about 7:30 p.m.
Friday evening's sighting came less than three weeks after a young bull moose that was severely injured by an unknown motorist in Cortlandt had to be shot to death by state police.
The injured moose was found Sept. 17 on the grass shoulder of Route 9 southbound about one mile south of the Welcher Avenue Exit in Cortlandt.
On July 10, a young male moose was previously spotted near woods along the eastbound lanes of Bear Mountain Parkway in Cortlandt. Earlier moose sightings were reported in Bedford, Millwood and Ossining. The moose in all those sightings had small antlers, typical of a young bull moose.
Moose sightings are extremely rare in southern New York. There are an estimated 800 moose in the entire state, with most living near the Canadian and Vermont borders. Moose are solitary animals and do not form herds.
Those were the first moose sightings in Northern Westchester since September 2008 when a half-ton moose died after being hit by nine vehicles while wandering onto Interstate 684 near Exit 6-A in Goldens Bridge in the early evening.
For more on the Ossining sighting, click here.
For Daily Voice's report on the Bedford moose sightings, click here.
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