VALENTINE, Neb. — It’s not something you see every day in Nebraska — a moose on the move.

Jed Snyder recently captured video of the animal running through north-central Nebraska just east of Burton. A few days later — and about 150 miles away — the Nance County Sheriff’s Office received a call about a moose that later made its way into Hamilton County.

“He’s covering a lot of ground over the course of less than two weeks,” said Luke Meduna, big game program manager with the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.

Meduna said while moose sightings in Nebraska remain rare, they’ve become slightly more frequent in recent years.

“Over the past ten or fifteen years, it’s been a little more frequent,” he said. “Historically, it’s every five or eight years we’ll get typically a young bull wander across different parts of the state.”

Meduna believes this moose likely came from Minnesota and may have traveled south during mating season. However, he said there are other reasons moose have been spotted in the state.

“In the North Platte River valley, it’s them expanding their range down the North Platte River coming from Wyoming,” he said. “The ones in eastern Nebraska tend to be younger bulls and tend to be during the fall, which is the breeding season for moose.”

Meduna said historically researchers linked roaming moose to meningeal brainworm.

Regardless of the reason, moose have become more common in western Nebraska in recent decades, and Meduna said one cow even produced offspring.

But sightings in eastern Nebraska are still unusual. The last known one occurred in 2019, when a young bull made its way into northern Kansas.

“It was the first moose Kansas has had since about 1989,” Meduna said.

Meduna cautioned anyone who spots the animal to keep their distance.

“They can seem very docile and approachable, but they don’t have the greatest eyesight and can startle quite easily,” he said. “They’re really big and can be unpredictable.”

So far, officials say this moose hasn’t caused any problems.

“We hope that he stays out of trouble and stays out of town,” Meduna said. “Out in the country it’s not going to be much of a problem. If he wanders into a town, that’s where things get complicated with higher densities of people.”

Wherever he goes next, one thing’s for sure — Nebraskans are keeping an eye out.