14 DAY TRIAL // Here is a piece of news that will surely put a smile on your face and hopefully help you make it through the workweek: not long ago, a team of daredevils in Alaska saved the life of a moose that got caught in an avalanche and became trapped under a massive pile of snow.
The three men, identified as Marty Mobley, Rob Uphus and Avery Vucinich, are quite convinced that, even when they first approached it, the animal knew that they were there to help it. Hence the fact that it didn't even try to attack them.
A rather peculiar rescue operation
According to the New York Daily News, the incident occurred shortly after the Christmas holidays, on December 28. On that day, Marty Mobley, Rob Uphus and Avery Vucinich were simply riding a snow machine not far from Alaska's Anchorage municipality.
The three men explain that this wasn't their first visit to the region. When they noticed that the tracks they left in the area the previous time they explored it were nowhere in sight, they realized that an avalanche had occurred.
While looking around the region, Marty Mobley, Rob Uphus and Avery Vucinich chanced to see something brown moving under a huge pile of snow. At first, they assumed that it was a skier who somehow got caught in the avalanche, and jumped to their rescue.
However, they soon realized that what they were dealing with was not a skier but a moose. Rather than abandon the animal to its death, the three men grabbed hold of their shovels and got to work removing the snow that was covering its body and keeping it captive.
“It looked like a guy's arm at first because we were expecting to see a skier,” Marty Mobley said in a statement. “But it was moaning and groaning and moving and we realized it was a moose, even though only his ears and some of its snout was sticking out of the snow,” he added.
The moose knew the men were trying to help it
The rescuers say that, rather than turn against them and try to attack them, the animal simply waited patiently for them to free it from the snow piled on top of it. Once no longer a captive, the moose stared at them for a few seconds and then ran away.
“It didn't even fight us,” Marty Mobley told the press in an interview. “It was like, ‘Help me. Help me.’ It was totally docile and let us touch it. It just lay there,” the man went on to detail how this fairly peculiar rescue operation played out.
The men suspect that the moose fell some 1,500 to 2,000 feet (about 460 to 610 meters) off the mountain. Still, judging by how fast it ran away after being freed, it looks like the animal was not seriously injured during the tumble.