Maine couple spots a bear chasing a moose calf and helps it escape

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A Maine couple heading out for a day of fishing happened upon a scene fit for a nature documentary: A moose calf running for its life with a large black bear in pursuit.

Elvia and Todd Malcolm were in Telos Township, Maine, about an hour or so from their home in Lincoln, when they saw a female moose along the edge of a wooded area before she turned down a side road.

“I said to Elvia, I said, ‘Grab your phone because you’re going to get a chance to get a picture of a moose,'” Todd Malcolm told The Associated Press.

They parked their truck to watch the moose and noticed she seemed agitated and was grunting as if calling to a calf.

Suddenly, the calf and bear charged out of the trees heading straight toward them. Todd Malcolm said there was no doubt in his mind that the bear would catch the calf and decided not to let nature take its course that day.

“I put the truck in drive and I just stepped on the gas,” he said, explaining that he wasn't trying to hurt the bear, just trying to put the truck between the bear and the calf. “I knew what I had to do and I just did it.”

The bear jumped to the side and streaked off, Todd Malcolm said, “Boom, gone, right in the woods."

His wife was happy and relieved they were able to intervene.

“My heart was racing because I did not want to witness the bear catching the calf,” she said. “As soon as the calf got past the truck and we were able to get the bear to give up the chase, I looked up the road and saw that they were together, the mom and the calf.”

Once the excitement was over, Elvia Malcolm started looking through the photos on her phone and was amazed to see that some clear action shots of the chase.

"I really thought I probably got like a bug on the windshield when I started to look at them,” she said. “I took them through the front windshield of the truck. I wasn’t outside the truck. No way was I getting outside the truck.”

After making sure that the mother moose and calf were reunited and safe, the Malcolms continued to their fishing spot where they caught some brook trout.