Moose rescued after falling into frozen lake in Alaska

WASILLA, Alaska (KTUU/Gray News) - A moose was rescued after it fell into a frozen lake in Alaska, KTUU reports.

Late Monday night, Donna Lorenzen heard her dogs barking on her property but it was too dark to see outside, so she did not investigate the disturbance until the next day.

She discovered a moose had broken through the ice on a lake outside of her house and was trapped.

She texted her son, Joe Lorenzen, to let him know what had happened.

Immediately, he sprang into action and rallied his friends together in his pickup truck with a couple of tow straps.

“I was there in the shop working — welding up stuff — and I got a phone call from Joe saying ‘Hey, dude, there’s moose that needs help,’” Kyler Mortensen said.

When they arrived on the scene, the group was eager to get to work on freeing the moose. One of the men fell through the ice trying to reach the moose.

“He actually fell in the water because he was just running so fast and was just gung ho,” Joe Lorenzen said.

Once the group of friends was prepared, they managed to tie a tow strap around the moose and drag it out of the water.

“She was just so exhausted, and just cold, that it almost appeared that she should have already passed,” Joe Lorenzen said.

Once the moose was out of the water and in a safe place, they started warming it with their hands and provided hay for nourishment.

The moose was weak from her overnight struggle and laid down for a while as the crew provided comfort.

“She was just kind of like looking up at me and that’s when I just kept nurturing her and I gave her a big kiss, and I said, ‘OK mama, you got this,’” Joe Lorenzen said.

When the moose looked like it was doing better and could be left alone, the men piled back up in the truck and went about their day.

Later, Joe Lorenzen returned to check on the moose. He said he found her trying to get into a bedding position.

He helped her back onto her right position and said about an hour later, she was seen eating from the trees at the edge of the lake.

It was the second time this winter that a bystander pulled a moose out of a lake in the Southcentral Alaska region, following a lake rescue in Anchorage in January.

The Department of Fish and Game has advised the public in the past to avoid encounters with wildlife, even if it means abandoning a helpless animal.

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