Forest Rangers, ECON Police work to free a moose stuck in ice of Lake Abanakee in the Adirondacks
By H. Rose Schneider, Staff Writer
INDIAN LAKE — An unusual type of ice rescue was underway Thursday after a bull moose plunged into the frigid waters of Lake Abanakee.
A bystander first saw the bull moose fall through the ice around 11 a.m., state Environmental Conservation police Lt. Robert Higgins explained in an interview with the state Department of Environmental Conservation. DEC officers and state forest rangers arrived about 40 minutes later and were faced with a dilemma. The moose was about 200 feet from shore, and an airboat had not yet arrived.
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Watch: In the above video provided by NYS DEC, rescuers work to free a bull moose stuck in the ice.
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“I guess there’s no training manual for getting moose out of the ice,” Higgins said.
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So they came up with a plan, Higgins said. He, DEC Officer Alan Brassard and Ranger Evan Nahor put on cold weather gear and headed out to the ice. Nahor used a chainsaw to cut out a path, while Higgins removed the ice blocks. Ranger Matthew Savarie later arrived and joined them, suggesting using jet sleds to move along the ice.
“Time wasn’t on our side,” Nahor said in the interview with the DEC. “We had the airboat coming, but it wasn’t going to be available that quickly.”
The next step was getting the moose to swim to shore. Nothing seemed to scare it, Savarie said. Then he and Nahor slid behind it in the sleds. That seemed to do it, and together the rangers flanked the moose, guiding it along the channel. Once it reached shallow water, it climbed onto the ice. It stayed there, shivering.
“It couldn’t get its footing for a while,” Savarie said. “We weren’t sure it was going to make it.”
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Eventually, the moose stood up and headed for the woods, according to the DEC. It had spent about two hours in the water. The airboat arrived about 20 minutes later, Savarie said. Had they waited, there may have been a different outcome. Video and photos show the moose, a male that had dropped its antlers, loping over the snow-covered ice, past buildings and a pickup truck that it rivaled in height.
“It was just an amazing sight to see that huge moose stand up right in front of us,” Higgins said.
Editor’s note: This story was updated from its original version with content from our partners at the Times Union
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