A Maine couple’s quiet fishing trip took a dramatic turn when they came upon a black bear chasing a frightened moose calf — and decided to use their truck to break up the pursuit.
Elvia and Todd Malcolm were in Telos Township hoping for a peaceful day outdoors when they spotted a female moose moving near a wooded area before she turned onto a side road.
“I said to Elvia, I said, ‘Grab your phone because you’re going to get a chance to get a picture of a moose,’” Todd Malcolm told the Associated Press.
But once the couple pulled over to watch, the scene quickly shifted. The moose seemed distressed, grunting toward a calf nearby.
Moments later, the calf burst out of the woods at full speed, with a black bear close behind and charging in the couple’s direction.
Todd said instinct took over. “I put the truck in drive, and I just stepped on the gas,” he recalled. “I knew what I had to do and I just did it.”
He said his goal was not to injure the bear, but to place the truck between the predator and the calf long enough to give the young moose a chance to escape.
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The bear veered away after the couple’s intervention, jumping to the side before hobbling back into the woods.
“My heart was racing because I did not want to witness the bear catching the calf,” Elvia Malcolm said.
“As soon as the calf got past the truck and we were able to get the bear to give up the chase, I looked up the road and saw that they were together, the mom and the calf.”
Elvia captured clear action shots of the chase, showing the moose galloping as fast as he could to escape the charged-up bear.
“I really thought I probably got like a bug on the windshield when I started to look at them,” she said.
“I took them through the front windshield of the truck. I wasn’t outside the truck. No way was I getting outside the truck.”
After making sure the moose calf was reunited with her mom, the pair carried on to their fishing spot.
With Post wires
