A Maine Couple’s Split Second Move Saved a Moose Calf From a Charging Bear

A black bear burst from the Maine woods chasing a helpless moose calf straight at a couple's idling truck.

Todd Malcolm had only a split second to decide whether to sit still or save the calf's life.

What Todd Malcolm did in the next few seconds left his wife's heart racing and it was all caught on camera.

Moose Calf and Bear Come Charging Out of the Maine Woods Straight at a Couple's Truck

Todd and Elvia Malcolm of Lincoln, Maine were headed out for a day of fishing when they stopped along Telos Road in Piscataquis County to watch a cow moose.

It was something they did often in that stretch of woods.

This time the moose paced back and forth along a side road, letting out anxious grunts as though trying to call in a calf that hadn't shown itself yet.

Todd told Elvia to grab her phone, figuring she was about to get a picture of a moose.

Instead, a moose calf sprinted out of the trees with a full grown black bear gaining on it from behind.

Both animals were running directly at the Malcolms' parked truck.

https://x.com/WGME/status/2072554949808951628“>https://x.com/WGME/status/2072554949808951628

Elvia said the moose had been agitated for a reason nobody in that truck expected.

Todd Slams the Truck Into Drive and Cuts Off the Chase

Todd put the truck in drive and stepped on the gas, steering the vehicle straight at the bear instead of the calf.

He said he never wanted to hurt the animal.

He just wanted something bigger than a moose calf standing between it and a predator.

"I knew what I had to do, and I just did it," Malcolm told the Associated Press.

The bear broke off the chase and darted back into the woods.

Elvia never got out of the truck.

She snapped photos through the windshield the entire time, certain she'd only captured a blur.

"My heart was racing," she said, because she couldn't bear the thought of watching the bear catch the calf.

Once the chase ended, she looked up the road and found the calf back with its mother, the two of them together and safe.

The photos she assumed were ruined turned out to be clear, dramatic shots of the entire chase.

The Malcolms drove up the side road to confirm the calf and its mother were reunited before finally reaching their fishing spot.

Then, in true Maine fashion, they went right back to their original plan and caught themselves some brook trout.

This wasn't some random fluke of nature.

Black bears rarely have the speed or strength to run down healthy adult game, but Maine wildlife officials note they'll happily take advantage of a slow, defenseless newborn moose in late spring before it's learned to outrun anything.

Add in the fact that Maine carries more moose than any other state in the continental U.S., and encounters like this one start to look less like a fluke and more like just another day in the North Woods.

A full grown cow moose can weigh over 800 pounds and stand seven feet tall, and she still couldn't do a thing to stop a bear bearing down on her newborn.

It took an ordinary couple in a pickup truck to do what nature alone could not.

Encounters like this aren't isolated to the Maine woods.

Just weeks earlier, a homeowner in California ended up toe to toe with a 70 pound black bear and beat it back armed with nothing more than a garden hatchet and a water bottle.

Around the same time, a different woman found herself being trailed by a bear during an ordinary walk with her dog and managed to capture the whole thing on video.

Americans living in bear country keep getting tested, and so far, they keep passing.

Todd Malcolm didn't have a hatchet or any kind of weapon on him.

He had a truck, an instinct, and no time to think it over.

He made the right call.

No agency showed up.

No permit got filed.

A husband saw danger closing in and used the only tool within arm's reach.

That is the same self reliant instinct that built the towns scattered across northern Maine, still alive and well out on Telos Road.

Elvia Malcolm went out that day to photograph a moose.

She came home with proof that protecting something weaker than yourself is still second nature out here, even when nobody is around to hand out the credit.

Sources:

• Amy Furr, "PHOTOS — Couple Helps Moose Calf Escape Bear Attack in Maine Woods: 'My Heart Was Racing,'" Breitbart, July 3, 2026.
• "Maine man uses truck to rescue moose calf from charging bear: 'I knew what I had to do,'" Fox News, July 3, 2026.
• Susan Bard, "A Maine couple spotted a moose. Then a black bear charged out of the woods," Bangor Daily News, June 29, 2026.
• "Black Bears," Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
• "Moose," Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.