A mother moose stared helplessly into the water from the riverbank, not knowing what to do.
She was trying to save her calf.
The video shows that her young calf is stuck in the river, too young and too weak to climb up the steep, overgrown bank. Mama moose doesn’t have a way to reach it.
There is no real “shore” to speak of. Just steep brush and nowhere to get a foothold.
Then a boat came.
Fishermen passed by and saw the distressed mother and child.
“We spotted a baby moose struggling to get on the land, so we decided it was best to let nature take its course by letting the momma help its young,” the filmer wrote online.
They left and returned an hour later.
The baby moose was still in the water and the mother moose was nowhere to be found.
“An hour later we went back to see the progress and the momma was nowhere to be found but the baby moose was still whimpering and struggling to get on shore,” the filmer added. “We noticed that the calf was extremely exhausted because the calf started to blow bubbles out of its nose. At that time we figured it was safe to help.”
They steered the boat towards the baby moose, who was unsure what the humans were going to do. But they reached forward to lift her out of the water and into the boat.
Since the baby was already in the water for at least an hour, it was shivering when they took it out of the water.
The fishermen found a more open patch of land.
They carried calf to dry land.
It struggled to get up on its feet and was probably unsure where it was. The baby moose looked back at its rescuers, hoping for one last bit of help.
The fishermen didn’t leave until the baby moose was confident enough to go on its own.
Another baby moose was trapped.
It was stranded on sharp rocks above the water.
The mother moose was there earlier but since she knew had to swim, she was able to get herself out of the water and leave. Whether she left her baby to fend for itself or left to get help, we don’t know.
Another boat came.
Luckily, a couple of people on a boat passed by and helped the trapped baby moose get out of the water.
They lifted it off of the rocks, which were still a long way from land.
It must have been so scared and it looked like it was just exhausted from trying to stay on the rocks and not fall off.
When they grounded, the two men let the baby moose go so it can run off toward its family.
But the poor thing was still scared and wanted to stay with the two men a little longer.
One man stayed behind to guide the calves away from the water and further inland.
In fact, he refused to leave until he was certain the moose were safely away from danger. He also felt pretty hopeful that they would be reunited with their herd.
See these valiant fishermen bring stranded moose calves to safety in the video below!
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