Canadian Men Rescue Moose That Fell Through Ice

Occurred on February 7, 2022 / Windigoostigwan Lake, Ontario, Canada

Info from Licensor: My self and 3 colleagues (Loggers) rescued a moose after she fell through the ice in northwestern Ontario on a logging road. I saw the moose and her calf in the morning on my way into work around 7 am not far from the spot she fell in. She was sighted in the water around 2 pm and there was some chatter about it over our 2-way radios. Darren was first on the scene. He went out to her and formulated a bit of a plan. He used the radio to see if anyone had a chainsaw. I replied that I did. I was 20 km north on the logging road and proceeded to the scene as quickly as possible. When I arrived we cut some poles and headed to the moose. She was exhausted from treading water for hours. The water was about 12 feet deep where she went in. We started cutting a channel to shore but the water wasn’t getting any shallower. So I went onto the thinner ice to see if it was shallower closer to the mouth of the river that flows into this lake and it was. So we cut a channel about 20 feet in length to shallower water. Then we began to guide her using the poles to move ice out of the way. We got her to shallow water where she got herself up onto the ice. She laid there for 5-7 minutes catching her breath we were all really worried she might not make it. Then she got up and I moved close to her so she wouldn’t get back into deeper water. Then you see her give us a look of relief almost like she was thanking us. Then she got out of the water and ran off. We felt it was our duty to help her get out. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind about helping her get out. Myself (Byron), Darren, and Jordan Hay were the rescuers.