Beltrami County, Minnesota - After finding a pine marten in his bobcat trap, a Minnesota trapper thought the worst. But when the animal moved, he sprung into heroic action and saved its life in a very up-close-and-personal way!

Catching out-of-season pine martens is illegal, so the trapper did his duty and called the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to report the unfortunate catch.

DNR Conservation Officer Nicholas Prachar got the call and told MPR News that the man was rattled: "He called me almost in tears saying he had a pine marten in his bobcat set and that he didn't want the animal to die."

But then things took an unexpected twist.

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"As I was on the phone with him, he said, 'Oh, hold on, the eyes just moved!' And next thing I know, he hung up on me," Pracher said.

A few minutes later, the trapper called back to say he'd managed to revive the marten, describing "in great detail" exactly how the mouth-to-mouth resuscitation worked.

Prachar eventually arrived to help release the marten, who was apparently less than grateful by that point.

The trapper's wife also showed the officer a video of the dramatic rescue.

Prachar said the small predator only survived because the body-grip trap is designed to quickly kill much larger animals, like bobcats.

The experience seems to have traumatized the trapper, who told Prachar he'd be collecting all ten of the bobcat traps he'd set in the area.