Biologists worked for five hours to pull the 500-pound bull moose from an old, hand-dug well.
A young bull moose was rescued on Wednesday after falling into a hidden well in Pembroke, Maine.
According to Maine Public, state biologists and game wardens responded to the hand-dug stone well at Cole’s Sheds after receiving reports that a moose had become trapped.
During the rescue, biologists had to sedate the moose, which they estimated to weigh 500 pounds. To do this, they used a syringe attached to a long pole and climbed into the 8-foot well, which had a few feet of water at the bottom.
“We knew that we’d have to immobilize it to be able to remove it, because a bull moose in the rut is not an unformidable animal. And it’s very powerful,” Steve Dunham, a regional wildlife biologist with the state Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, told the outlet.
Video shows rescuers using straps and an excavator to lift the drowsy moose from the well. The animal is then seen walking away, unharmed. The entire operation took about five hours.
Dunham said they administered an immobilization reversal drug to counteract the sedative. He urged local hunters not to shoot the moose this season, as the drugs may make the animal’s meat unsafe for consumption.
Morgan Rousseau is a freelance writer for Boston.com, where she reports on a variety of local and regional news.
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