Your morning adorable: Alaska family saves moose calf

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Big Lake, Alaska, resident Randy Richards and his family didn’t take it lying down when an Alaska state trooper suggested a baby moose they rescued should be shot. The newborn calf had somehow become separated from its mother and was chased into the Richards’ yard by a pack of dogs; the family rescued it and tried to find its mother, to no avail. The calf was so young its umbilical cord was still hanging from its navel.

The family placed the calf in a fenced area overnight and called the state troopers, who were less than optimistic about its chances. The Anchorage Daily News reports on what happened next:

The calf caused some commotion during the rainy night from Wednesday to Thursday, running around the yard and crying for its mother. But morning arrived and Mama Moose still was nowhere to be seen.

So Richards started making calls.

Nick Cassara, a fish and game technician Richards spoke to that morning, was making calls too. He said the Milwaukee County Zoo had applied to the state for two moose. The application wasn’t yet approved but the Alaska Zoo, where a lot of moose orphans end up, agreed to take care of the calf until it was.

Cassara loaded the moose in the back seat of his pickup and delivered it there Thursday.

The calf will be cared for by Alaska Zoo staff for another month or so, at which point it’ll be taken to its new home in Wisconsin. More photos after the jump!

-- Lindsay Barnett