AN ELUSIVE ELK that has been wandering the hills in Colorado with a car tyre around its neck for at least two years has finally been freed of the obstruction, US wildlife officials said.

The four-and-a-half-year-old, 270kg bull elk was spotted near Pine Junction, south-west of Denver, on Saturday evening and tranquilised, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

Officers with the agency had to cut off the elk’s five-point antlers to remove the encumbrance because they could not slice through the steel in the bead of the tyre.

“We would have preferred to cut the tyre and leave the antlers for his rutting activity, but the situation was dynamic and we had to just get the tyre off in any way possible,” officer Scott Murdoch said.

Mr Murdoch and fellow officer Dawson Swanson estimated the elk shed about 35lb (16kg) with the removal of the tyre, the antlers and debris inside the tyre.

Wildlife officers first spotted the elk with the tyre around its neck in July 2019 while conducting a population survey for Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep and mountain goats in the Mount Evans Wilderness.

They say they have seen deer, elk, moose, bears and other wildlife become entangled in a number of items, including swing sets, hammocks, clothes lines, decorative or holiday lighting, furniture, tomato cages, chicken feeders, laundry baskets, football goals and volleyball nets.