Man swims with friendly moose he cared for as a calf

PASVALYS, Lithuania, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- A Lithuanian man who filmed his swim with a friendly wild moose said he once acted as surrogate mother to the animal.

Erikas Plucas posted a video online showing him swimming alongside the moose, which he dubbed Emma, on a hot June day this year.

The moose allows Plucas to play with her and stroke her head and back.

Plucas said he and the creature have a history.

''On May 2015 a moose cub walked into my farm in north Lithuania -- cub was so weak that no one believed it will survive,'' he wrote online.' 'I became a new mother, to feed her, make special milkshakes, sleep in barn together during rainy days and introduce her to the forest.''

He said the moose lives in the wild, but is still close with her human "mother."

''Now she is free to go whenever she wants, but every day she keeps coming back to me and we're spending a lot of time together,'' he wrote.