Northern Ont. snowmobilers save a moose that fell through ice

Snowmobilers were out sledding in an area between Sudbury and Sturgeon Falls, Ont. After returning from the trails they heard a moose fall through ice. The four men quickly got to work saving it.

A moose had fell through the ice on the lake. (Image Courtesy of Shawn Duquette)Shawn Duquette, Jean-Yves Paquette and Andre Roberge from Verner, along with Scott Simmons from Sturgeon Falls, quickly jumped into action Thursday afternoon after hearing the crash of the moose falling through the ice on Manitou Lake, north of River Valley.

“Our buddy's wife came running over and said, 'One of the guys just told me there was a moose in the water just up the road a bit.’ So we’re like, ‘Alright, let’s go check it out to see if there’s something we can do to help,’” said Duquette.

“So, we jumped on the snow machines, we took off and sure enough there was a big mama moose with just her head out of the water.”

Duquette told CTV News the men climbed down the side of the cliff onto the ice then tied a rope around her neck to help get her out. After about an hour, they successfully saved her.

“That part of the lake, there’s about 80 feet of water, so what we tried to do was cut a trench in the ice so that she can swim closer to shore and kind of get her feet underneath her,” Duquette said.

“But we were about halfway through the process when Scotty was hanging onto the rope to keep her head above water and she managed to get one leg up, her other leg came up, we gave a couple good pulls and she came up on her own.”

Duquette added she was in the water for roughly an hour and a half.

Simmons told CTV News that this was an experience he’ll never forget.

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After the moose got one leg onto the ice it only took a short time for the men to pull her back onto the surface. (Image Courtesy of Shawn Duquette)“We just pulled for everything we were worth and she was able to get enough support. We got her up on the ice. She actually stayed sitting down, she didn’t move,” said Simmons.

“One of the guys was able to get up close to her, and carefully get the rope off from around her head. We all backed off but we backed off in the direction of where she came from so that it would push her more towards the shoreline and she looked at us twice and I’m like, ‘This is awesome, man,’ a feeling of joy… after such a rough couple years and be able to look at her.”Scott Simmons told CTV News the men backed off and the moose headed towards the shoreline. (Image Courtesy of Shawn Duquette)“All we wanted to do was make sure she had a chance, a fighting chance,” added Simmons.

The moose then wandered off into the bush, likely calmed down and dried off, but is safe thanks to these men.

The moose was saved thans to the efforts of four men. (Image Courtesy of Shawn Duquette)