Wildlife Crew Saves Distressed Elk From Freezing Water
A bull elk that had fallen into the icy waters of a river in Banff had a lucky escape on March 27, when Parks Canada’s rescue team dragged it back to safety.
The rescue, which attracted quite the crowd down the banks of the Bow River, was recorded by Mariam Fernie Bokhari and shows the rescuers using a chainsaw to carve a path through the ice.
In the video, a crew member can be seen falling in the water as the elk follows the carved trail, before the team eventually succeeds by pulling the elk’s hind legs out of the water.
Fernie Bokhari told Storyful that the team had first attempted to lasso the elk’s antlers but failed in doing so. She said that the elk was “very cooperative … as if it understood the team was there to help him!” Credit: Mariam Fernie Bokhari via Storyful
Video transcript
- Yeah!
- [INAUDIBLE]
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
- Save the elk. Save the elk. Save the elk.
- Oh.
- [INAUDIBLE]
- This has been over a half hour, guys. Get on with the program. [INAUDIBLE]
- I feel like [INAUDIBLE].
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
- You like [INAUDIBLE].
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
- Protest, protest, [INAUDIBLE].
[SPLASHING]
Yahoo! Yahoo!
- Shh.
- And you sit down.
- I can say that, too.
- [INAUDIBLE]
- Yahoo, [INAUDIBLE].
- 35 minutes later, and it's not even out yet.
- They're going.
- Is it already [INAUDIBLE]? They're trying to break the ice, so they can make it easy for him to get out.
[BUZZING]
[WIND RUMBLING]
[BUZZING]
[BACKGROUND CHATTER]
- Heads up!
- Ooh, someone fell in.
[BACKGROUND CHATTER]
- [INAUDIBLE] back [INAUDIBLE].
- [INAUDIBLE]
- Touch him.
- Get on that side. [INAUDIBLE]
[CHEERING]
- Wait.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
- They did a really good job.
[GEESE HONKING]
- He knows that [INAUDIBLE] good.
- Get a closer look at the elk.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
- Can we go now?
