Maine wardens rescue moose trapped for hours in abandoned well

[ad_1]

PEMBROKE, Maine (AP) — A bull moose that fell into an abandoned well in Maine was pulled to safety during an elaborate five hour rescue.

The operation happened Wednesday after Cole Brown, whose family owned the forested land in northern Maine, spotted a pair of antlers. He heard a noise and initially thought it was turkeys but, upon, closer inspect, realized it was something a lot bigger.

In a photo taken Sept. 17, 2025 in Pembroke, Maine, a moose is trapped in an abandoned well. (Delaney Gardner via AP)

In a photo taken Sept. 17, 2025 in Pembroke, Maine, a moose trapped in an abandoned well is rescued by wardens from the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife. (Delaney Gardner via AP)

Show Caption

1 of 2

In a photo taken Sept. 17, 2025 in Pembroke, Maine, a moose is trapped in an abandoned well. (Delaney Gardner via AP)

Expand

“He walks over and, through the thick alders and bushes, he saw the antlers, just the antlers peeking out,” said Delaney Gardner, Brown’s stepsister who videotaped the rescue. “He knew that an animal of the size, he was going to need some back up just in case it was, you know, injured or just stuck there.”

The family alerted the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife. They sent a biologist who sedated the moose and then wardens put straps on the animal. Using an excavator provided by the family, they gingerly lifted the moose out of the 9-foot deep well.

“Once the sedation wore off, the moose took off running, no worse for wear other than perhaps his bruised ego,” the agency said on its Facebook page.

Gardner said the successful rescue left her with a mix of “relief and happiness.”