Around 8:30 p.m., the woman’s 2005 Honda Civic struck the female moose as it ran, with traffic, in her lane on River Road, just north of the Interstate 95 overpass, said Lieutenant John Lyons of the Weston Police Department.

The driver of the car, a 79-year-old woman from Waltham, was not injured in the collision.

WESTON — Greater Boston’s wild moose chase reached a fatal conclusion Tuesday night after a car struck and critically wounded what, officials said, was likely the same animal that loped through Belmont and Watertown June 1.

After the crash, Lyons said, the moose tried and failed to stand up several times. As a crowd gathered around the scene, Environmental Police euthanized the animal, he said. It’s estimated that the moose weighed about 45o pounds, according to Lyons.


Katie Gronendyke, a spokeswoman for the state’s Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, said the Environmental Police did all they could do to find and relocate the moose to safety, but, in the end, they had to rely on sightings. There were several such sightings reported in June, but by the time officers were able to arrive on scene, the moose had left. The last sighting was reported in Belmont on June 4.

Trying to track the moose on foot would have been an exercise in futility, said Marion Larson, chief of information and education at the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife.

“Even with something the size of a moose, there are still many places where animals can take refuge and not be seen,” she said. “It’s a pointless exercise to go try and find it.”

On Wednesday, all that remained at the accident scene on River Road was a broken sideview mirror, pieces of glass, and a dark stain near the side of the road.

Officials said that it is probable that this was the “Belmont Moose” that became an Internet sensation after galloping its way through suburbia in early June.


Larson said officials could not be positive it was the same animal — because it wasn’t wearing a tag — but it would be highly unlikely for another female moose to make it so far into civilization.

The moose, who inspired a Twitter handle and generated thousands of YouTube views, was memorialized on social media Wednesday.

Tweets of condolence and “#RIP” went out all day. One mourner wrote, “we’ll fly an antler at half mast for you.”

The moose, it seems, made a habit of wandering down streets. Mary Poulin, who lives in Waltham, nearly hit the animal with her car May 31 while driving down Lexington Street. It was so tall, Poulin thought it might have been a giraffe. It gave her a scare, but, she said, it brightened her day.

“It was a little piece of joy that I’d seen this wild creature in Waltham,” she said.

She was afraid it would end this way.

“I am very sad,” she said.

While moose are common in Massachusetts, Larson said, it’s unusual to spot them east of Interstate 495. She estimated there are about 1,000 moose in the state and, when one occasionally ventures near the city, it doesn’t often end well.

“It’s the hard reality when you have so many people, cars, and wildlife so close together,” Larson said.

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