In a thrilling and resourceful wildlife rescue, skateboarder Erik Bragg (@thisguysthelimit) recently filmed himself saving a raven that had gotten tangled in a fishing line, posting the video to his Instagram.
Saving the tangled raven was no easy feat. The bird was dangling from a tree branch out of Erik's reach and getting progressively more and more tangled in the line as it struggled to free itself.
Erik's first attempt, lifting the raven up with his raft paddle to release the tension on the line, proved unsuccessful. Luckily, with the help of his partner and a passerby who had a pocket knife, Erik was able to MacGyver his way to a solution.
"It's wrapped around that branch like fifty times. I have to cut it down," he said.
First, Erik placed his inflatable raft underneath where the bird was hanging to act as a landing pad. Then, he tied the passerby's knife to his raft paddle and used the extended knife to cut the line. The raven fell right onto the raft, just as intended.
The rescue wasn't finished yet, though. Erik and the knife owner then had to meticulously cut all the line away from the raven's wings, beak, and legs without hurting the bird further.
Miraculously, it worked. The video ended with the visibly exhausted bird flying back into the trees.
As we can clearly see from this video, improperly discarded fishing lines and nets pose a serious and immediate threat to wildlife. Although this raven seems to have survived its encounter unscathed, thanks to the work of Erik and his friends, it is very easy to imagine how things could have gone the other way.
Erik's Instagram followers were overjoyed at the successful rescue mission.
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"If the world had more people like you guys in it how wonderful would it be. Thank you so much for helping and to the fishermen or women that left this shame on you," wrote one commenter.
"Thank you for being kind souls and helping this raven. This is our duty as custodians of nature," wrote another.
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