Creative Teamwork Saves 500-Pound Moose After Fall Into Hidden Well

A trapped bull moose needed a creative rescue from wildlife biologists in Maine after the animal fell into a hidden well.

Delaney Gardner and her family recently bought a 100-acre property in Pembroke, Maine, and didn’t know there was a well on the farmstead. Her brother, Cole, was working on the property when he and his coworkers heard a commotion coming from the woods. They went to investigate and couldn’t see the moose through the thick vegetation, but when they moved in closer, they found him, his antlers sticking out of the giant hole.

Assistant wildlife biologist Steve Dunham with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife was called in to help. When he heard there was a moose down in a well, he couldn’t quite picture what that might look like or what he was in for. When he arrived, he saw the predicament. How was he going to get the 500-pound animal out safely?

Game wardens, biologists, and community members put their heads together to figure out how to lift the moose out. “It’s not exactly something that there’s a handbook on, so just seeing all the problem-solving skills in action was incredible,” said Gardner, who filmed the moose’s rescue.

Close to a dozen people worked together. Dunham took a “leap of faith” by jumping into the muddy well with the moose because he was unsure if the well had a solid bottom. Tranquilizer drugs, an excavator, and even a man’s T-shirt were used to successfully pull the moose out.

After the moose was lifted out, he was revived and ran off “with a good stride,” all his limbs working. The well’s opening is now covered.

The rescue proved that when resourcefulness and teamwork meet an unexpected challenge, even a 500-pound moose can be saved.

Watch the rescuers’ firsthand account of freeing the moose in the video below.