Forteau hunter rescues young moose trapped in snow

A young moose is free after a hunter from Forteau rescued the calf trapped in snow on a river.

[It] looked like he was looking back saying 'thank you'.- WilliamSaulter

William Saulter and his nephew Scott were out checking their traps when Saulter discovered a young moose stuck in a hole.

Saulter said he first thought the moose was an otter. When he got closer and saw the animal's ears, he knew it was a young moose.

"When I got there he was trying to leap and trying to get out," Saulter told CBC Radio's Labrador Morning.

"He wouldn't come up out of it. So I said 'by we got to try and get a rope around him or something to try and get him up;[we] can't leave it there.'"

The calf's front legs were slipping on the snow and ice, causing him to fall back into the hole.

Saulter and his nephew were able to get rope around the moose's waist and, with a stick, got him out of the hole.

There weren't any footprints around the hole, so Saulterestimated the calf had been stuck for a few days, andsaid the trapped moose was a hard sight to see.

"It wasn't dangerous for us on the river, we know where to go," he said. "But it was dangerous where we got the moose...because [the snow] was breaking away all the time."

When he was free, the calf seemed tired, Saulter said.

"He was pretty exhausted," he said. "When we got him on the ice, he just lied there on his belly for a while. And then he tried to get up. So he stood up on the ice, and stood up there for a few minutes. Then he started to move around."

The calf walked away form the incident seemingly unharmed, Saulter said, and looked back at the two men who saved him three or four times before he disappeared.

"I think he thought he was glad we got him out. That's what it looked like to me," hesaid.

"[It] looked like he was looking back saying 'thank you.'"