There are days in a Canadian winter – when the temperature drops well below freezing and the snow hasn’t yet fallen – that transform any body of freshwater into a glass-like sheet of ice.

But what can bring joy to an adventurous human can prove a nightmare for some wild animals.

Footage of an Ontario man rescuing a family of deer stranded on the ice has been shared thousands of times after the video was posted online.

Eager to take advantage of a cold snap, Ryan Peterson laced up his skates on a recent lunch break. Gliding across Lake of the Woods in northern Ontario, Peterson spotted a trio of white tail deer, hopelessly splayed on the ice.

He approached gingerly – but had gravity on his side.

“If they’re upright, they can kick you,” Peterson told the Guardian. “[But] once they’re down on the ice, their legs are flat out and they can’t lift them.”

The deer seemed exhausted, and Peterson realized they were unlikely to make it back to shore – and that, stranded on the ice, they would have made easy prey for wolves.

“I figured I’d go back and eat lunch and grab some rope,” he said, “I gave them about an hour or so. They were still in the same place, when I came back … and that’s when I pulled them into shore.”

He approached the mother first, looping the cord around her neck. Despite a mild struggle, she wasn’t in a position to bolt.

Soon, the pair were off, the doe bewilderedly skidding along the ice towards shore.

Peterson returned for the two fawns, looping the cord around both their necks, and pulling the pair towards shore.

When they reached the rocky outcropping where their mother was waiting, it took a few prods with a branch to spur the family off the ice and on to the shore.

It remains unclear why the family of deer ended up on the ice. “I’m not entirely sure how they walked all the way out there,” Peterson said. “But they definitely walked out there.”

The Guardian

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