A pair of area men are in the spotlight after their quick thinking saved the life of a moose that fell in cold water on a northern Saskatchewan lake.
Reggie Jackson was heading back from his ice shack on Wildnest Lake, about 40 kilometres away from Flin Flon and Creighton not far from Highway 106, when he encountered another man pulling his shack off the lake. The two fished together for a little while before heading away separately.
When Jackson caught his limit of fish, he headed for home when he encountered his fishing companion’s snowmobile just off the trail. At first, Jackson thought he had broken down, but then he looked towards a nearby creek. There, a cow moose had fallen through the ice and was stuck in the icy water.
“There was this guy, all his gear is off his sled. I asked if he was alright, then he pointed back to the creek and there was a moose. He was already trying to help her and had things ready to go,” said Jackson.
“I did a double take when I saw her. I guess when he saw her, he did a double take too. ‘What the heck?’ She caught his eye when he was driving and he looked back. We said, ‘Yeah, that’s a moose in the creek. How are we going to do this?’”
When Jackson arrived on the scene, the fishing companion – Jackson identified him only as Nolan – had stripped gear off his sled to help out the moose.
“He had all his gear from the ice shack: a chainsaw, ratchet straps, rope. He had everything he needed to get her out of there. I would have had to go back to my shack to get everything, so that was good. We didn’t have to waste any time,” said Jackson.
The two got to work cutting ice with a chainsaw to provide a safe route out of the water for the moose. They tied a rope around the moose to lead it toward the ramp.
The spooked animal was uncooperative at first. Jackson said he was unsure if she would leave the water.
“At one point, I didn’t think we were going to get her out. It just wasn’t working. She was kind of fighting us a bit, putting the brakes on,” he said. “She was just done. She was gassed.”
The sun started to set and the moose was losing energy. Jackson noticed wolf signs near the hole in the water, leading him to think the moose – which he suspected was pregnant – was being chased by wolves when she broke through the ice.
Then, a breakthrough.
“It was like she got a little bit of life back in her and she had some fight left, she perked up and that’s when she got out,” he said.
Once the two were able to lead the moose to the area they had cut, the moose got one hoof out of the water, then another. Gradually, she began to push herself out, with both Jackson and Nolan helping pull.
“We actually got her up just by kind of muscling her up. We got one hoof up. I kept tension on the rope to keep her up, then Nolan just kind of walked up real slow and I was talking to her. He was able to get a ratchet strap around her hoof and that was the dealbreaker, to do that,” said Jackson. “Once we got that on her, we got both her hoofs up, then we hooked that up to the sled.”
After strapping the moose to the snowmobile, the two were able to pull the moose out. The animal, cold and spooked, wandered into the bush, cold but alive.
“It was definitely one of the coolest experiences I’ve ever had. They’re a beautiful animal. It was surreal. It was awesome. There’s no better feeling than to get her out of there and see her trot off back into the treeline. That was great,” he said.
The moose left the scene with Jackson and Nolan’s rope still tied on her neck. The two were unable to take the rope off the moose following its escape from the cold water.
“We didn’t have much choice. She just left the rope as it was and when she got up, I wasn’t about to walk up to a moose just standing there. She’d kill me. I didn’t want to risk that. She went back into the bush after that with the rope around her neck,” Jackson said.
“I’ve been getting flack from some people about that, but at the end of the day, we got her out.”
During the rescue, Jackson shot photos and video on his phone. After making it back to Flin Flon, Jackson posted the media online, where it was shared hundreds of times. Media outlets in Winnipeg reported on the story, although Jackson said they tripped up in telling at least one aspect of what happened.
“I was having this conversation with the lady in Winnipeg and I told her I’ve hunted before and I’ve killed moose and they kind of put a twist on my story,” he said. The story, published by CBC, said that Jackson, an avid hunter, was having second thoughts about ever going hunting or eating moose meat after the encounter.
“I was like ‘Oh, come on.’ I was just helping an animal in distress. When I watched that on the news, I just started laughing,” he said.
Jackson was not upset with the interpretation, adding some of his hunting friends got in touch and provided some friendly ribbing.
“The boys are already calling me ‘the Moose Whisperer’,” he quipped.
Having time to think, Jackson was philosophical following the rescue. He is unsure if the moose was able to survive following being submerged, but knows it was able to walk away thanks to the help of the two men.
“We couldn’t leave her there. If Mother Nature decides from there; well, we can’t control that. It sucked about the rope, but at least she got out and got a fighting chance. That made me feel good. I went home feeling good. We both did,” he said.
While Jackson has received much of the spotlight for originally posting the videos and photos of the incident, he downplayed his role in the situation, praising his new fishing buddy Nolan for his initiative and preparation.
“Hats off to him. He deserves just as much credit or more than me,” Jackson said.
“I don’t even know his last name, but he was awesome. If it wasn’t for him, with everything he had on his Skidoo, that was the factor in the survival of the moose. If I had to go all the way back to my shack, which was 14 miles away, she might have been dead by then or the wolves may have got her by then. If it wasn’t for him having everything on his sled, we wouldn’t have gotten her out. He deserves a lot of credit for that.”
