GREEN LAKE COUNTY, Wis. (WBAY/Gray News) – Authorities used a drone to rescue three deer that were trapped in an icy lake.
Green Lake County Sheriff’s Office responded to Big Green Lake after someone reported several deer had fallen through the ice.
“We’ve done a lot of human rescues, looking for people, lost people, search and rescue stuff, accident scene crashes. Never done one doing a herd deer drive with a drone,” Detective Josh Ward said.
Drone footage shows a doe and her two fawns treading in nearly 40 feet of water, 200 yards out from shore.
The deer tried to get back onto solid ice, grabbing anything they could but headed farther away in the opposite direction.
Ward said because deer are afraid of people, they had to be creative to rescue the deer.
“If we came from the shoreline with a boat, they’re just going to try and get away, and you’re actually doing more harm than good because you’re pushing them further and further away from shore. We couldn’t come in from the waterside, because that’s obviously all froze over,” Ward said.
Ward used a drone to corral the deer towards them to shore.
“I’m thinking that drone, if I can do it, it’s easy enough that I can just bring it around and do a cattle drive, but for deer and just use the prop wash or the drone to motivate them,” Ward said.
Ward said windy conditions made flying the drone a challenge.
Rescuing the third deer proved to be tricky with the wind shifting the ice on the lake and the deer not having the energy to get over the rocks but thankfully, the deer was rescued.
“We were able to get her up over the top of the rocks, where we then pulled her to dry land, and she laid down for a little bit. Had to conserve some energy, and then ultimately, just met up with her mother, and off they went,” Ward said.
Deputies were able to rescue all three deer in an hour.
Ward called it one of the most creative rescues the sheriff’s office has ever done.