Baby Moose Saved From Lake as Mama Watches

All ended well in scary Alaska incident
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jun 19, 2024 3:00 AM CDT
Baby Moose Saved From Lake as Mama Watches
Spencer Warren, who works for a wilderness guiding service, arrived about 6:30am Friday, June 14, 2024, to prepare a floatplane for a client’s trip when he discovered a moose calf trapped in Beluga Lake in Homer, Alaska.   (Spencer Warren via AP)

An Alaska man and two police officers rescued a baby moose from what police described as "a sure demise" after it fell into a lake and got stuck in a narrow space between a floatplane and a dock, the AP reports. Spencer Warren, who works for the outdoor tourism company Destination Alaska Adventure Co., had arrived at work about 6:30am Friday to prepare a floatplane for the day's trip when he heard what he thought was an odd-sounding bird. He quickly spotted the moose calf stuck between the floats of the plane and the dock at Beluga Lake in Homer, a Kenai Peninsula community about 220 miles south of Anchorage.

He immediately thought, "Oh, man, where is mama? I know she's nearby," before spotting the worried mother about 4 feet away with another calf. Mother moose can be dangerously protective of their calves—a photographer was killed by one protecting her young just last month in Homer. The baby moose tried to get out of the lake, but couldn't get its footing on the top of the metal float with its hooves. Its wary mother was keeping Warren, the would-be rescuer, from getting too close as it struggled. Warren checked in with his boss, who called Homer police.

One officer eventually positioned his police cruiser between the mama moose and the floatplane to allow another officer and Warren to rescue the calf, Homer Police Lt. Ryan Browning told the AP. The calf had one leg outstretched across the top of the plane's float, where it was stuck. "You know, kind of thankfully, he wasn't moving so that it made the rescue a little bit easier," Warren said. "We just lifted him straight out and put him on the dock there." The exhausted calf splayed out on the boardwalk until an officer helped it stand. The calf reunited with its mother and she licked the water off its body—all of it caught on camera by Warren.

(More uplifting news stories.)

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