'Easy Kill': Moose Lovers Want Answers After Mother Moose Killed In Lake City

LAKE CITY, Colo. (CBS4)- Lake City locals say an investigation is underway in a mountain community after a female moose with two calves was killed. Some residents in Lake City were upset, saying the moose had been a regular in the area for years.

Steve and Lynda McCormick have been studying, photographing and even naming the moose in the area for years. Eventually they put their knowledge into a book, "Aint Moose Behavin'!"

"We are the moose people," Lynda said.

"People ask, 'What's this one's name? and 'What does this mean?'" Steve said.

The couple says the moose had grown comfortable in the area.

While they don't know whether the kill was legal, they compared it to shooting a horse in a corral.

"Legitimate hunters, we are okay with. What has really upset everyone around Lake City, hunters included, is that this was basically an easy kill," Linda McCormick said, "and this isn't the only one, there have been a couple of bull moose taken in the same way."

Hunting moose is legal in Colorado and popular.

A parks and wildlife spokesperson says they had nearly 40,000 applications for the one-time hunt and issued the maximum number of tags, about 500.

But locals question if the shooting of this mother moose was legal but are asking for change even if it was.

"What we would like to see the ultimate result, which I think a lot of people in Lake City are driving towards, is to have those areas along the viewing corridors as hunt-free zones," Lynda said.

The McCormick's believe it would make cases like this less common.

"We just want to see that the playing field is leveled," she said.