TORONTO (AP) — Canadian firefighters got out the axes to rescue a freezing almost 500-pound (225-kilogram) female moose from the ice on the weekend.

The Shediac fire department in Canada's East Coast province of New Brunswick got a call Saturday morning from a homeowner on the Shediac River who spotted a moose stuck in ice.

"We had all the boys dispatched to retrieve him," Firefighter Jos LeBlanc said Monday.

He said the moose first appeared agitated by firefighters but then calmed down and simply watched them work. He took a video of the rescue that involved three firefighters on the ice with axes and three more on the shore with ropes and life jackets.

LeBlanc said they smashed a path to the shore, but the animal seemed reluctant to mount the riverbank.

So they returned to scare the moose, which responded by mounting the bank before running off.

The rescue took an hour and a half. He said it is unclear whether the moose was otherwise able to recover from its time in the frigid river.