A bull moose that fell into an abandoned well in Maine was pulled to safety during an elaborate five-hour rescue. The operation happened Wednesday after Cole Brown, whose family owns the forested land in northern Maine, spotted a pair of antlers. He heard a noise and initially thought it was turkeys, but upon closer inspection, he realized it was something a lot bigger, per the AP. "He walks over and, through the thick alders and bushes, he saw the antlers, just the antlers peeking out," said Delaney Gardner, Brown's stepsister, who videotaped the rescue. "He knew that an animal of [that] size, he was going to need some backup just in case it was, you know, injured or just stuck there."
The family alerted the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife, which sent a biologist who sedated the moose, allowing wardens to place straps on the animal. Using an excavator provided by the family, they then gingerly lifted the moose out of the 9-foot-deep well. "Once the sedation wore off, the moose took off running, no worse for wear other than perhaps his bruised ego," the agency said on its Facebook page. Gardner said the successful rescue left her with a mix of "relief and happiness."
"This is a majestic, giant animal in such a precarious situation," she noted. "Seeing it work out was just so satisfying and heartwarming." Gardner said the family didn't know that the well—which is likely decades old—was on their 100 acres of land until the moose fell into it. Since then, they've capped the well and are considering their options, including digging it out and using it, since there may a water source nearby. "For now it's covered, and no more animals or people will be falling into it," she said.
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