In memoriam of the Ottawa Highway Moose (an obit of tweets)

The moose that wandered onto the Queensway on Thursday, (Ottawa Police)

Rest in peace, unknown moose.

That moose that wandered onto Highway 417 early Thursday morning, disrupting traffic while also enchanting Twitter, was shot after provincial wildlife officials decided an attempt to tranquilize it would be too dangerous.

The moose, which appeared to have a broken leg, was spotted on the eastbound Queensway near Bayshore/Pinecrest around 6:30 a.m. It wasn’t long before the disruption became a perfect example of things that happen “only in Canada.”

“Unfortunately the moose had to be euthanized because there just wasn’t another safe option,” said Jolanta Kowalski, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), according to CBC Ottawa. “The animal was injured and it had been on the highway for quite some time.”

The MNR donated the moose carcass to the Algonquins of Ontario for the meat to be distributed among their community members, CBC reported.

Farewell to the moose who stole our hearts.

(Here’s an interesting article from CBC on how the moose may have found itself on the highway in the first place.) RIP Highway Moose - Curated tweets by ottawastart