A moose calf that somehow found itself upside-down in a snowbank in a remote area of British Columbia was given a second chance at life last week thanks to a warm-hearted logging truck driver.
Vanderhoof resident Wayne Rowley was driving down a forest service road last Thursday when he noticed a curious sight: four legs pointing up out of the snow.
"Went around this one corner and here's this moose. I didn't think it was a moose, I just seen these things sticking up out of the snowbank," Rowley told CTV News.
Rowley, who was headed to pick up a haul of logs for Dalchako Timber, pulled over to take a closer look. Once he realized the strange figure in the snow was a moose calf, he assumed it was dead. Then they made eye contact.
"I guess I have to dig you out now," Rowley thought.
Seeing that the moose was stressed out, Rowley grabbed a shovel and started carving out a hole beside the animal in the hopes that it would roll itself onto its hoofs. When that didn't work, he tried to pull the calf out with his hands.
"I put a rope around his neck, 'cause they'll bite you, you know. They kick at you when they're stressed out like that," he said.
Rowley and another trucker he called on his radio did eventually get the calf onto its feet. Before taking off, the moose shot one last glance at its rescuers.
"He kind of looked at us, put his ears back and shook himself," Rowley said. "He just walked up on the road, like huh, thanks a lot, and away he went down the road. Would have preferred his mother, I guess."
Rowley spotted the calf once more that day a few kilometres down the same service road, but that was the last he's seen of it. He told CTV News he's hopeful the moose's mother followed the calf's scent and caught up to it eventually.
As for how the animal ended up in the snowbank in the first place, Rowley’s guess is as good as anyone's.
"If another truck was coming and he jumped off into the snowbank, it's so deep he [could have ended up] upside down in there. The more he kicked the deeper he went down on his back," Rowley said. "That's what his problem was."
