Firefighters in the US 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 the Kenai Peninsula said the moose, estimated to be a one-year-old bull, had a mis-step while eating breakfast on Sunday morning by a home in Soldotna, about 150 miles south-west of Anchorage.
He 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 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 was getting the moose – which weighed at least 500lbs (225 kilograms) – 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.
Photos of the morning rescue show the moose appearing unfazed, 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 reported.
Once the sedative wore off, the moose had apparently had its fill of human companionship and took off back into the wild.
