Moose is rescued from basement in Alaska home
Emergency services personnel prepare to rescue a moose which had fallen through a window well into the basement of a home in Soldotna, Alaska, on Sunday
FIREFIGHTERS in the United States state of Alaska have dealt with an unusual request for assistance from wildlife officers, after a moose became stuck in a basement.
Captain Josh Thompson, from Central Emergency Services on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula, said the moose, estimated to be a one-year-old bull, took a wrong turn while eating breakfast last Sunday morning by a home in Soldotna, a town located about 150 miles south-west of Anchorage.
Capt Thompson said: “It looks like the moose had been trying to eat some vegetation by the window well of a basement window and fell into it, and then fell into the basement through the glass.”
The mammal was trapped, one floor below ground. A biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game was able to tranquillise the moose, but the animal was still not completely unconscious.
Capt Thompson said: “He was still looking around and sitting there, he just wasn’t running around.”
Once sedated, the next problem for the emergency services was getting the moose – which weighed at least 500lb (225kg) – out of the house.
Responders improvised by grabbing a stretcher which is typically used for larger human patients.
Once the moose was in position, it took six men to carry the animal through the house and back outside.
Pictures of the rescue mission show the moose appearing unworried, simply looking ahead between the two men carefully manoeuvring the front of the stretcher down a hallway.
Capt Thompson said the moose waited for a while after they took it outside until a reversal agent for the tranquilliser kicked in.
Biologists also treated minor lacerations on the back of the creature’s legs as a result of it falling through the window, the Anchorage Daily News newspaper reported.
Once the sedative wore off, the moose had apparently had its fill of human companionship and took off back into the wild.