A Maine couple used their pickup truck to rescue a moose calf from a charging bear during a fishing trip, an act one of them described as instinctual.
Todd and Elvia Malcolm were in Telos Township, Maine, when they stopped to photograph a female moose near the woods. The couple noticed the moose appeared agitated. Moments later, a bear emerged from the trees with the moose calf, running directly toward their truck.
"I knew what I had to do and I just did it," Todd Malcolm told The Associated Press. Believing the bear would catch the calf, he drove his truck forward, placing it between the predator and the young animal. The maneuver caused the bear to veer off and disappear back into the woods.
Elvia Malcolm described the encounter as nerve-wracking, stating her "heart was racing because I did not want to witness the bear catching the calf." She managed to capture several photographs of the incident through the truck's front windshield. She later saw the mother moose and calf reunited.
Malcolm emphasized that his intention was not to harm the bear but to separate it from the calf. After the encounter, the couple continued their fishing trip.
American black bears are common throughout Maine and are known to prey on young or vulnerable moose calves. While encounters between bears and moose are a natural part of the ecosystem, this incident highlights a rare human intervention.
