An Alaska man and two police officers saved a baby moose from what police described as “certain doom” after it fell into a lake and became stuck in a narrow space between a seaplane and a dock. The dramatic rescue was captured on video.
Spencer Warren, who works for the outdoor tourism company Destination Alaska Adventure Co., had arrived at work around 6:30 a.m. Friday to prepare a seaplane for the day trip when he heard what he thought was a strange-sounding bird.
He soon spotted the moose calf stuck between the plane’s floats and the dock at Beluga Lake in Homer, a community on the Kenai Peninsula about 220 miles south of Anchorage. The floats replace the wheels of an airplane, allowing it to take off and land on water.
He immediately thought, “Oh man, where’s mom? I know she’s nearby,” before spotting the concerned mother about a yard away with another calf. Mother moose can dangerously protect their calves – a photographer was killed by a mama moose protecting her young in Homer last month.
Spencer Warren/AP
The baby moose tried to get out of the lake, but couldn’t get a foot on the metal float with its hooves. His wary mother made sure Warren, the would-be savior, couldn’t get too close as he struggled.
“It’s like an ice rink for the moose and its hooves,” Warren said of Friday’s rescue. “So he just kept slipping and slipping and couldn’t get back up.”
Warren contacted his boss, who called Homer police.
One officer eventually placed his police cruiser between the mother moose and the seaplane so another officer and Warren could rescue the calf, Homer Police Lt. said. Ryan Browning to The Associated Press.
The calf had one leg extended over the top of the plane’s float, where it was stuck.
“You know, luckily he didn’t move, so that made the rescue a little easier,” Warren said. “We just lifted it straight out and put it there on the dock.”
The exhausted calf spread out on the boardwalk until an officer helped it up. The calf reunited with its mother and she licked the water off its body – all captured on camera by Warren.
“Anytime you can save a little critter, you always feel good,” Browning said.
Homer police posted Warren’s video of the dramatic rescue on Facebook.
“Sometimes you can really do something important in life,” the police wrote. “Our hats off to Officers Morgan Tracy and Charles Lee who helped save a moose calf from certain demise early this morning.”
According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, there are approximately 175,000 to 200,000 elk in the state. In the wild, moose rarely live longer than 16 years.
