Not all heroes wear capes.
Wild animals and human beings don’t always get along. Trust me. I cover plenty of examples of people testing their luck, only to to feel the wrath of Mother Nature. Whether it be a selfie-taking tourist getting charged at by a bull elk, “Turkey Trot” runners getting torpedoed by sprinting deer, or even rutting bucks nearly impaling a park visitor, the lesson learned most of the time is to just stay away from wild animals.
Yet somehow that message doesn’t get out to everyone.
The National Park Service generally advises tourists to stay 25 yards away from animals that are deemed “non-violent.” That list includes bison, elk, and other creatures that tend to be relatively docile – though docile is a relative term. When it comes to bears, wolves, and other apex predators, the NPS warns park goers to keep 100-yards between them and the animals.
At the root of things, those are really simple, borderline common sense guidelines. Time and time again, people get closer than those distances I mentioned about, and they typically pay the price. And if you throw babies into the mix, you should at the very least double those yardages. No one in their right mind would dare getting close to a baby out in the wild, because oftentimes, a protective mother is nearby.
However, I guess you could categorize the video below as an exception to all of those rules. That’s because the man in this video noticed that a baby moose was stuck in a barbed wire fence near Edmonton, Canada, in need of help, and the mother moose that was standing feet away apparently couldn’t get her kiddo unstuck. So the brave good Samaritan by the name of Joey stepped in to free the crying calf from its accidental entrapment.
The guy first had to gain the trust of the mother moose, or at least encourage it to move far enough away to where he could comfortably work on getting the baby loose from the barbed wire. So he got big and tall, waved his arms, and moved towards the female moose (also called a cow). It initially did the trick, but the mother cow came rushing back multiple times, worried that the man was trying to harm her kiddo.
Eventually, the mama got the picture, and stayed a safe distance away (yet not too far) while Joey worked at dislodging the baby from the razor-sharp wires. After a solid couple of minutes working to untangle the calf from the fencing, the man was finally successful in freeing the baby back into the wild.
The man tells Newsflare:
“I was driving and saw the moose calf with it’s leg caught in the fence. I pulled over as did another driver. I handed him my phone and he got into the box of his truck and recorded the video. The calf had stepped through the wires but got it’s hind leg twisted in 2 of the barbed wires. I knew the fence was not enough to protect me from the moose cow, so I had to scare her off to get at the moose calf.
It took a bit of trying because the wires were tight and my heart was pounding, but I got the calf free and gave it a push to let it know it was not caught anymore. The wire had not cut through the skin so aside from being a little sore, the calf was fine.”
It made for a really cool moment, and one that you could tell the mother moose appreciated:
That’s a feel good story for you.
Like I said, the guy had to basically ignore all of the don’t-get-too-close guidelines in the rulebook to do this, but I guess there are some exceptions. Not many, but some. He was able to reunite the moose calf with its worried mother, and not only was the mama thankful, the internet was too:
“That’s one heck of a risk, but worth the reward!”
“Finally! A smart human who helped the animals.”
“Awesome that the mama moose knew he was helping!”
“Bravo! Joey is the man.”
“Finally a video of someone doing a good thing for nature… not acting like buffoon.”
