A man who spotted a baby moose wandering by herself by the side of a busy road decided to rescue her after spotting a bear lurking nearby.
Mark Skage was driving through British Columbia, Canada, when he spotted a baby moose alone by the roadside and took pity on the poor animal.
Stopping to help after he saw the baby moose almost hit by several vehicles, she soon tried to get inside his van and he soon saw the reason why, spotting a black bear lying in wait about 50 yards away.
In that part of the world as many as four in 10 moose calves end up being killed by black bears so between the cars on the road and the bear lurking nearby he decided to let the moose into his vehicle.
While he at first waited for the baby's mother to show up there were no other moose around and he eventually had to get going again, only with a passenger on board.
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Taking the calf with him for about five-and-a-half hours on the road, he called a conservation service during his journey to find somewhere the baby moose, named Misty, could stay.
She's since been taken in by a wildlife rehabilitation centre and Skage knows that technically he did the wrong thing by not letting nature run its course as normal, but would do it again if he had the choice.
However, he explained in a post on Facebook that he'd been fired for rescuing the animal because his actions clashed with their policy on animal welfare.
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Skage claims he was let go for being in 'grievous conflict with their wildlife policies' and alleges that he contacted his supervisor despite the company's claims otherwise.
He worked for oil company AFD Petroleum as a tank technician but according to Global News they say that the vehicle cameras didn't show a bear anywhere in the area and doesn't show Skage thoroughly searching to see if the calf's mother was nearby.
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They say that Skage did not contact the conservation service or his supervisor as he claimed.
Legally, Skage should not have transported the animal as in British Columbia it is illegal to possess or transport wildlife without a permit.
In an update to his Facebook post Skage has claimed that even if the cameras didn't spot it there definitely was a bear waiting further down the road, and he insisted that he contacted the conservation officer and his supervisor.
He acknowledged that when it comes to the question of whether he did everything right or not the answer is 'likely not', but he 'did what I felt was the right thing'.
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UNILAD has contacted AFD Petroleum for comment.
Topics: World News, Canada, Animals
Joe Harker