'It was kind of surprising': Moose washes ashore on western P.E.I.

People walking along one of the beaches in western P.E.I. are getting quite a surprise a dead moose has washed ashore.

Scott Smith, the innkeeper at the West Point lighthouse, thought it must have been a hoax yesterday when a man from Toronto rang the doorbell and said there was a dead deer on the beach.

"I said 'a dead deer'? That's a little odd. We don't have deer on P.E.I. so I was quick to tell him, 'well, sir, there's no deer on the Island so I'm not sure what would be there.'"

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So Smith went down to see for himself and sure enough, about five minutes northwest of the lighthouse, a young female moose,was dead on the shore.

I thought, "did someone leave the carcass of the moose from a hunting trip or something?"- Scott Smith

"It was kind of surprising," he said.

"I thought, 'did someone leave the carcass of the moose from a hunting trip or something?' But when I saw it was fully intact, nothing cut, nothing shot, that it was just a full moose that had somehow died maybe naturally or perhaps from drowning from trying to cross over to P.E.I."

Smith said he contacted the province, who told him the carcass would be removed some time Wednesday. But as word continues to spread, curious people have been stopping by to have a look.

"All kinds of steady traffic, people walking down," Smith said.

"Moose aren't native here on Prince Edward Island so to hear of a moose on the Island is a unique and different kind of thing."

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