Not all heroes wear capes. Sometimes, they just carry a lasso.
That’s exactly what Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials had to use to rescue a bull elk that was drowning in mud up to its neck, by lassoing its antlers and pulling it out to safety with an ATV.
It all went down near Creede, Colorado on December 5th.
Two CPW officials pulled up to the scene to find the bull unable to remove itself from the mud, and they initially tried to pull it out by hand, but it was too heavy.
If they hadn’t have made another effort to remove the bull, it would’ve died from drowning or starvation.
The CPW caught the heroic move all on video, saying in a Twitter post:
“Wildlife officer William Miedema took a call from the U.S. Forest Service about this small bull being stuck. Miedema and fellow wildlife officer Tyler Cerny responded to the area and found the young bull elk stuck up to its neck in mud and unable to get out.”
In order to remove the bull, Miedema and Cerny had to loop two ratchet straps around the base of the bull’s rack, and secure the ends around the back of their ATV.
Then, they were able to slowly pull the bull out of the muddy area.
The two were able to successfully remove the elk, and shared in a follow up tweet:
“[The officers] were able to successfully rescue the elk. We want to thank the Forest Service for reporting this animal in distress and our wildlife officers for their quick thinking.
It was a difficult task, but they got it out. Good luck out there, young bull!”
