A scary scene in Alaska turned heartwarming after three people saved a baby moose that had fallen into a lake and gotten stuck between a floatplane and a dock, the Guardian reported.
"I didn't think I'd have to deal with this today," begins the man narrating a video of the rescue, which took place at Beluga Lake in Homer, Alaska. The baby moose's mother and another calf looked on in concern.
Luckily, the rescuers were able to pull the calf up onto the dock, where it appeared to be "so tired," according to the men, but otherwise unhurt. Without being pulled out of the lake, the calf had been headed for "sure demise," the rescuers said.
"You know, kind of thankfully, he wasn't moving so that it made the rescue a little bit easier," Spencer Warren, who filmed the video, told the Guardian. "We just lifted him straight out and put him on the dock there."
The video ends with the mother moose heartwarmingly licking the baby before the two retreat back into the woods.
The incident is just one example of how human development can pose a threat to wildlife and how important it is that we do everything in our power to protect the wild animals whose habitats we encroach on. Although a baby moose could certainly fall in a lake without any humans around, in this case, the moose got stuck between two manmade structures.
Unlike with many species, the overheating of our planet has actually led moose populations in Alaska to rise sharply in recent years (similar to mosquitoes). Warmer winters have allowed more of the vegetation that moose rely on to grow — and spread into areas that used to be dominated by tundra, allowing the moose to expand their habitats.
However, that is no less of a reason to protect them — especially from harm caused by human development.
The YouTube audience was very grateful to the baby moose rescuers.
"Absolutely heart-warming!! Thank you for helping a helpless animal. As a mother, I can only imagine the anxiety that mama moose was experiencing. You two are animal rescuers extraordinaire!" wrote one commenter.
"Thank you for saving the little baby," wrote another.
"Makes me cry," a third chimed in.
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