A helpless moose calf was reunited with its mother thanks to the efforts of a very kind driver in Alaska. The man was driving home when spotted the crying baby moose struggling to cross over the highway guardrail, so he stepped up and saved the day. The beautiful moment was caught on camera by the other drivers!
Andrea Bock who witnessed the scene, and even caught it on her cellphone, was driving on a highway near Clam Gulch in Alaska, when the traffic stopped. She soon realized the reason for it was a mother moose and her baby. The duo was trying to cross the road, when the tiny calf got stuck. The highway guardrail was just too tall for the tired calf to cross and it got separated from its mom.
“The calf would get close to the end of the guardrail, but every time the mother would bring him back to the center, further away from the end,” the woman explained to THE DODO. “I think the reason the mother kept bringing him back…was because it was the section where there were no cars.”
It was nearly half an hour since the poor animal was struggling top make it through, and things weren’t getting any better, until one of the drivers decided to the matter into his own hands!
Joe Tate and his friends were returning from a fishing trip, and initially they had no idea what the reason behind the traffic jam might be, but they soon figured out, though. It’s when they decided to give an helping hand, but they all knew they had act extremely carefully, because a distressed like the mother moose was, could be extremely dangerous, especially when someone’s approaching her little one.
“After nearly 30 minutes of frantic pacing back and forth and the line of traffic growing more and more by the minute, a gentleman came and gave the calf some assistance,” Andrea later wrote on Facebook. “He waited for the right moment in time when the mom was on the other side of the highway. Traffic blocked her view as he quickly grabbed the calf and placed him over the guardrail with his mother.”
But Joe, helped by his friends, manage to rescue the calf, by taking it into his arms, crossing it over the guardrail and eventually reunited it with the concerned mother!
“It was tired. It was so young, maybe a week and a half old,” Joe told KTUU. “I mean in the time that could have took, something else could have happened. Nowhere near expertise, but I had some knowledge of what to do and what not to do, and handled it the best it could be done.”
Although his heroic gesture saved the calf’s life, the wildlife officials highly recommend not to follow Joe’s example because things can quickly turned around. On the other hand, animals could be very dangerous around their babies, and on the other hand, if a baby animal gets into contact with a human for too long, it could then be rejected by its mom. Thankfully, this time things went as planned!
“It was calculated. It was something we kind of looked at and talked about before we did it. It worked out for the best,” Joe said. “It could have gone bad, and I understand and know that. But it did go for the best, and it was worth the risk that I took.”
Joe said they initially thought to call the Alaska Wildlife Troopers or the Department of Fish and Game, but he feared it would have been too much for the calf, and it probably would have been too tired until the rescue would have arrived.
