A Maine couple thought they were about to photograph a moose. Instead, a calf and a bear burst from the woods, and they had seconds to decide whether to intervene

What began as a quiet fishing trip in the US state of Maine turned into a dramatic wildlife rescue when a couple found themselves watching a black bear chase a moose calf. With only seconds to react, the man drove his truck towards the animals to break the chase, while his wife unknowingly captured the tense moments on her phone.Todd and Elvia Malcolm were expecting a peaceful day of fishing when they set off for Telos Township in Maine. Instead, they found themselves in the middle of a race between a frightened moose calf and a black bear.As they drove through the area, the couple spotted a female moose standing near the edge of a wooded stretch. Todd turned to his wife an said, "Grab your phone because you're going to get a chance to get a picture of a moose," he later recalled telling Elvia, as quoted by news agency Associated Press.The moose soon walked onto a side road but did not disappear into the forest. She appeared restless, grunting repeatedly as though she was calling for her calf, the couple recalled.Then a young moose came charging out of the trees with a large black bear close behind. The terrified calf was running straight towards the couple's parked truck.

A split-second decision

Todd says he was certain the bear would catch the calf if nothing changed. Without hesitating, he put the truck into drive and steered it between the bear and the calf.

His aim was not to hit the bear, but to force it to abandon the chase.The plan worked. Startled by the approaching truck, the bear jumped aside and disappeared into the woods, giving the calf enough time to escape. "I knew what I had to do and I just did it," Todd said.For Elvia, the few seconds of the chase felt much longer. "My heart was racing because I did not want to witness the bear catching the calf," she said.She watched the calf run past the truck before spotting it further up the road with its mother.

Seeing the pair together again brought an immediate sense of relief.

A surprise inside the camera roll

Only after the excitement had faded did Elvia scroll through the photos she had taken from inside the truck. At first, she thought the blurred shapes on the screen were nothing more than insects on the windscreen."I really thought I probably got like a bug on the windshield when I started to look at them," she said. Instead, she had captured clear action shots of the bear chasing the calf through the front windscreen.After making sure the mother moose and her calf were safely reunited, the couple continued to the fishing spot they had planned to visit that morning. They ended the day catching brook trout.