BETHEL – A young cow moose with a fractured front leg that swam through the Androscoggin River in West Bethel on Thursday afternoon and clambered onto an island has yet to be found.

Maine Warden Service spokesman Mark Latti said Warden Norman Lewis searched the large, heavily vegetated island east of the West Bethel boat launch site for 90 minutes during a thunderstorm.

“He canoed to the island and found where the moose was, searched for an hour and a half, but saw no signs of it and wasn’t able to track it,” Latti said. “It’s a big island and the vegetation is very thick.”

Maine Guide Rocky Freda of Bethel, who with wife, Lisa, operates Sun Valley Sports and Guide Service at 129 Sunday River Road in Bethel, alerted the Warden Service to the injured moose.

The Fredas said their clients paddled down the river, spotted the swimming moose and filmed it, then noticed when it climbed onto the island that it was walking on three legs. They showed the video to the Fredas.

“It is a young cow, and her right front leg is all staved up,” Rocky Freda said. “She was probably hit by a car. There were no bones sticking out of her leg, but it’s not going to make it.”

He said he contacted the Warden Service to have someone put the moose out of its misery.

Latti said that killing a moose or attempting to rescue it is up to individual wardens.

“It’s their judgment. If the animal is badly injured, like a broken bone in this case, it’s certainly something that a rehabilitator couldn’t fix,” he said.

Normally, wildlife rescues are only done with younger and smaller animals, especially by canoe, he added.