A crack squad of Canadian wolves has been airdropped into the wilderness in the United States with a special mission: to catch and kill moose.
Seriously.
The wolves were carried by a helicopter from their natural home in Ontario to the Isle Royale National Park - a gigantic island within the United States' Great Lakes - in order to set them loose on the unsuspecting moose, reports 9gag.
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In short, there is a surplus of moose, and not enough wolves. They've sought to address that by introducing some specialist moose-hunting wolves. Everyone's happy.
Well, except probably the moose, but nobody has bothered to ask them.
On top of that, the scientists behind this ambitious plan hope that they'll mate with the native wolves in the area and help the local wolf population bounce back from the brink.
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Isle Royale covers around 900 square miles, and historically has been accessible to wolves via ice bridges that form during the winter months.
However, over the past two decades, these bridges have become less common, and even less predictable and consistent (whatever could have caused that) meaning that two wolves have been stranded on the island, and no others of their species could reach them.
Bleak, to say the least.
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They introduced a few others a while back, but these four intrepid moose hunters are amongst 20 or 30 that they intend to introduce in the coming years.
However, they needed to be the correct wolves. That's not easy, as John Vucetich from the Michigan Technological University, and leader of the Wolves and Moose of Isle Royale Project, explained to the Guardian: "You don't get to choose the wolf you trap.
"It could be old, young, or injured when captured."
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Basically, they wanted a 'Goldilocks' wolf - ironically enough - not too old, not too young. They had to be just right.
This is vital because wolves have a pretty short lifespan - just four years, unless they're the top dog - in the wild. They want these ones to breed and build up the population. Otherwise their efforts will have been in vain.
It could be volatile, too. These wolves have never met before. Oh, and they've just been dumped out of a helicopter into a new place.
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Vucetich continued: "They live in families, so imagine what happens to a dog when they're plunked into a foreign place.
"They are being introduced to each other. It's tense and nervous - and it's tough to find food in a new place. It's stressful."
Not as stressful as it's going to get for some of the moose on Isle Royale.
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