Colorado wildlife officers use ATV to rescue elk from mud pit

Officers from Colorado Parks and Wildlife were able to come to the aid of an elk that got stuck in a mud pit in the San Luis Valley earlier this month. The challenging rescue effort happened on Dec. 5 near La Garita in Saguache County, and CPW shared the details on Wednesday.

The young bull elk had gotten stuck up to its neck in the pit and couldn't get out. Someone with the U.S. Forest Service initially called in a CPW crew. When they got there they captured a video and shared it on Twitter showing the elk able to move only a tiny bit.

"It's more able to move than I thought it would be able to, though ... this is real bad," one of the officers can be heard saying on the video.

CPW's crew first tried pull the elk out by grasping its antlers. The animal was too heavy, though, and wouldn't budge.

After that they tried attaching ratchet straps to the antlers of the animal and then attached the straps to the back of an ATV. Slowly the driver of the four-wheeler attempted to go forward but nothing happened, so they made some adjustments and very gradually the elk started to come out of the pit after a few more attempts.

Eventually the elk was fully removed from the pit and it stood there covered in mud as the wildlife crew headed out and wished it luck.