A baby moose has been rescued from what police described as "a sure demise" after it fell into an Alaskan lake and got stuck in a narrow space between a float plane and a dock.
Local man Spencer Warren heard the baby moose struggling at about 6:30am last Friday.
He was arriving at work to prepare a tour company's float plane for the day's trip when he heard what he thought was an odd-sounding bird.
He spotted the moose calf stuck between the floats of the plane and the dock at Beluga Lake in Homer, a Kenai Peninsula community about 350 kilometres south of Anchorage.
He recalled thinking: "Oh, man, where is mama? I know she's nearby," before spotting the worried mother about 1.2 metres away with another calf.
Mother moose can be dangerously protective of their calves. A photographer was killed by a moose protecting her young last month in Homer.
The baby moose tried to get out of the lake, but couldn't get its footing on the top of the metal float with its hooves.
Its mother was keeping Mr Warren from getting close as the calf struggled.
He said the plane's float was "like an ice rink for the moose and its hooves".
"So he just kept slipping and slipping and could not get up."
Mr Warren checked in with his boss at the tour company, who called Homer police.
Upon arriving, one officer positioned his police cruiser between the mother moose and the float plane.
This allowed another officer and Mr Warren to rescue the calf, police Lieutenant Ryan Browning recalled.
The calf had one leg outstretched across the top of the plane's float, where it was stuck.
"You know, kind of thankfully, he wasn't moving so that it made the rescue a little bit easier," Mr Warren said.
"We just lifted him straight out and put him on the dock there."
The calf lay splayed out on the boardwalk until an officer helped it stand.
It reunited with its mother and she licked the water off its body.
"Anytime you can rescue a little critter, it always makes you feel good," Lieutenant Browning said.
AP