VIRGINIA — A Duluth hunter has been charged with illegally taking a moose, which he told officers he mistook for a deer.

The Duluth man faces a gross misdemeanor charge after allegedly shooting the animal on Nov. 8, the opening day of the firearms deer season, just north of Cotton.

Minnesota has not had a moose season since 2012, as the once-thriving population began a rapid decline about 20 years ago.

The incident was reported to the Department of Natural Resources shortly after 9 a.m., according to a criminal complaint. Conservation officers Shane Zavodnik and Jake Peterson responded and met the man and his hunting party at their camp in the Melrude area.

The man allegedly said he was in his stand when he saw what he believed to be deer antlers and shot the animal. He fired again, causing it to fall.

Officers learned he had sent a message to another member of his group, stating: “I f—ed up and shot a moose.”

The hunter said his stand faces east and that the trees and glare from the sun made it difficult to see, but he thought he was shooting at a six-point white-tailed deer. The moose was found approximately 110 yards away from the stand.

Both officers reported that the man’s eyes were “bloodshot and watery” and that he smelled of alcohol. He allegedly acknowledged drinking beer the previous night, and a preliminary breath test showed a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.10, which is higher than the legal limit for driving.

The officers seized the man’s rifle, and the moose was turned over to the 1854 Treaty Authority, which manages off-reservation tribal hunting rights in Northeastern Minnesota.

State law sets restitution for the illegal taking of a moose at $1,000. The charge itself carries a fine of up to $3,000; jail time is not typically imposed for hunting violations, and the man does not appear to have any criminal history.

He was issued a summons to appear in State District Court in Virginia on Feb. 20.

A DNR estimate this year placed the state’s moose population at 4,040 — a figure that has remained relatively stable for the past decade, but a far cry from the 8,840 estimated in 2006.

The figure plummeted to just 2,760 in 2013, which prompted the DNR and area tribes to suspend the hunt. The three Ojibwe bands in the treaty area resumed a limited harvest in 2016.

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