ROCKWOOD – He’s mean and doesn’t particularly like women, nor game wardens. He was wearing a 10-point headpiece when last seen, and not anxious to have those antlers hang over the fireplace at some Elks Club.

This morning, the second day of the yearly moose hunt, he is listed in the most-wanted file. No mug shots available. Nor fingerprints. But there are witnesses who’ll gladly testify that this creature is an ungrateful woods tenant, and that’s no bull.

How come, you ask?

Warden Michael Favreau left his snug little patch on the planet, The Boundary Cottage on the Maine-Quebec International Boundary, and flipped on his voice box, the radio, en route to Raymond’s Store at Northeast Carry. Kim Lynch, who works for the Land Use Regulation Commission out of Greenville, had come across a bull moose lassoed to something and she was asking for help.

The radio transmission was scratchy, but Mike knew Kim Lynch wasn’t trying to make a hair appointment. Mike determined that Kim was north of Elm Pond.

Well, parishioners, Warden Michael Favreau did indeed locate Kim Lynch and sure as you’ll need warm mittens this winter, he’d read her scratchy account of a “bull moose tied up!”

“I discovered that Kim found a live bull moose that had done battle with a game pole that had a one-half-inch thick rope still tied to it. Somehow, the moose had gotten his antlers tangled in this rope and, in trying to free himself, succeeded only in twisting himself tighter.”

The locale was at a back country hunting camp.

The moose had dragged the entire framework a short distance from the facility, then fetched up the poles and could not get free. Each time the animal lifted its giant head, the A-frame-type building moved.

So how does one go about releasing a full-grown, mad-as-hell moose thonged tightly to someone’s answer to the Ritz Carlton north of Elm Pond, Piscataquis County? The same careful way one would attempt to tame a 1,000-pound gorilla, I’d guess.

Michael asserts releasing this bull proved to be a trifle touchy. “His situation had not left him in the best of moods. He demonstrated displeasure whenever we tried to approach him. He apparently blamed us for his predicament.”

Like the prepared Boy Scout, Mike carried a sharp knife and attached it to the end of a long pole. Between Mike and the pole, there was a 2-foot wide tree. He attempted to saw away at the rope nearest the animal’s antlers and to show appreciation of this emergency care and treatment, the moose suddenly and powerfully jerked his head upward and broke the rope free from the pole.

Mike and Kim fully expected the ungrateful bull would go dancing off into the bush singing, “Born free….” Not so. The bull chose to remain and stand his ground. A distance of 4 feet and a 2-foot tree separated the two principals, Mike and the moose. The moose would bend down and drink water that he hadn’t been able to reach before.

“He became very agitated when I moved, even so much as my hand. This standoff continued for quite some time. He was a handsome devil, I must admit. Had a 10-point rack and I should know. I must have counted those points 30 times waiting for the thing to leave. He did, finally, but with a portion of the rope hanging from its rack and down over his face.”

Mike Favreau credits Kim Lynch and others by getting the moose to move off by yelling and throwing rocks.

“I’m reminding moose hunters in my territory if they shoot one and it has a deer collar, make certain it gets into the hands of the fish and wildlife department. And if someone bags a 10-pointer with a rope on its antlers, they can keep the rope.”

The moose is the largest big game animal on the North American continent. At all cost, do not invite one to your next church outing.

Years ago, driving along the road to his home in Mattawamkeag, William Suitter barely escaped serious injury when his car was savagely attacked by a mean bull. The giant of the woods didn’t like the looks of the two glaring headlights and charged the car with terrific force. He caved in one side, fenders and all, smashed the lights, and slammed the motor a crippling blow with its heavy antlered head. After beating up the car, the moose returned to the woods.

Another moose went berserk in North Sullivan and terrorized the town for several years. The moose, weighing well over 500 pounds, came out of the woods and galloped through town, crashed into parked and moving automobiles and sent people scampering from the streets.

This happened, also, years ago, and the late Clint Barrett, a grand old warden member, was forced to shoot it.

Anyway, Mike Favreau says if you get the 10-pointer wearing a rope tassel from its antlers, the rope is yours for the keeping.