Baby moose trapped in a lake is rescued by Alaskan man and police as worried mother looks on

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — An Alaska man and two police officers rescued a baby moose from “certain death” after it fell into a lake and became stuck in what police described as a tight space between a seaplane and a dock.

Spencer Warren, who works for outdoor tourism company Destination Alaska Adventure Co., had arrived at work around 6:30 a.m. Friday to prepare a float plane for the day trip when he heard what he thought was a strange-sounding bird.

He quickly spotted the moose calf, which was stuck between the plane’s floats and the dock at Beluga Lake in Homer, a community on the Kenai Peninsula about 220 miles (350 kilometers) south of Anchorage. The floats replace an airplane’s wheels and allow it to take off and land on the water.

He immediately thought, “Oh man, where’s mom? I know she’s nearby,” before spotting the worried mother about 4 feet away with another calf. Moose mothers can be dangerously protective of their calves – a Photographer was killed by a moose Just last month in Homer she was protecting her cubs.

The baby moose tried to get out of the lake, but its hooves couldn’t get a grip on the metal raft. Its cautious mother kept Warren, the would-be rescuer, from getting too close as it struggled.

“It’s like an ice rink for the moose and his hooves,” Warren said of Friday’s rescue. “He kept slipping and couldn’t get up.”

Warren reported to his boss, who called the Homer police.

One of the officers eventually moved his patrol car between the moose and the floatplane to allow another officer and Warren to rescue the calf, Homer police Lt. Ryan Browning told the Associated Press.

The calf had stretched one leg over the top of the aircraft float and was caught there.

“Luckily he didn’t move, which made the rescue a little easier,” Warren said. “We just lifted him out and put him on the dock there.”

The exhausted calf lay stretched out on the dock until a police officer helped it up. The calf returned to its mother and she licked the water from its body – all captured on camera by Warren.

“It’s always a good feeling when you can save a small animal,” Browning said.