Canadian Authorities Want To Know Who This Guy Riding A Moose Is

Update: Officials now believe they know when and where the video was shot.

A video posted on YouTube appearing to show a man jumping off a boat and onto the back of a swimming moose has caught the attention of authorities in British Columbia.

youtube.com

In the video, a boat is seen speeding toward a swimming moose and when it closes in, a man wearing plaid trunks jumps onto its back. There are at least three other men in the boat who begin laughing raucously as the man is taken away by the moose, one arm raised in the air in triumph.

"I’ve never seen something so awesome," says one of the men on the boat.

The video was posted on YouTube on June 22 by Wolftracker TV. According to posts on a B.C. hunting forum, the video was originally posted on Facebook but has since been deleted.

Wolftracker TV / Via youtu.be

Steve and Chris Wolfe, the pair behind Wolftracker, said the behaviour shown in the video is "disgusting" and "goes against everything we stand for."

Conservation officers in Fort St. John told BuzzFeed Canada they are now investigating the video. If found, the men could face animal harassment charges.

Wolktracker TV / Via youtu.be

"The general public has been in contact with us and there have been some names that have been forwarded to us," said Sgt. David Vince of the Fort St. John Conservation Office, who first saw the video himself on Monday morning.

As of Tuesday, officers had narrowed the location of the video down to Tuchodi Lakes in Northern Rocky Mountains Provincial Park. They believe the video was shot in July 2014.

Sgt. Vince said they've received leads from locals as to who the men in the video are but it will be "a bit of a process" before any possible charges are laid.

"We’ve had some very good support, lots of public support, lots of public outrage," said Sgt. Vince, adding they've received calls from as far away as New York City from people expressing concern.

"It’s nice to see that people want to take care of our wildlife."

Under the B.C. wildlife act, harassing animals includes anything that may "worry, exhaust, fatigue, annoy, plague, pester, tease or torment" them.

Wolftracker TV / Via youtu.be

While some comments on Reddit and Twitter found the stunt funny, one commenter on the Hunting B.C. forum called it "a disgusting display of animal cruelty and that any person attempting such an act, is fact not a sportsman at all but a f*#@ing idiot, and should be dealt with accordingly."

In 2013, two men were fined $2,500 for a similar incident on a lake in Northern Ontario.

Sprûce Treë/YouTube / Via youtu.be

According to CBC, video and witness reports helped authorities track down two men seen in a video circling a moose as it tried to swim away before one man jumped onto its back.

The men plead guilty to harassing the moose and their boat was seized until the fine was paid.