Video: Hovercraft Team Pulls Three Deer Off Frozen Lake
OutdoorHub Reporters 12.11.13
A Facebook post from one local news station has led to a rescue by hovercraft. ABC 6 News posted a picture of a deer stranded on Minnesota’s Albert Lea Lake. The deer and two others had wandered onto the icy surface of the lake and were trapped for at least two days as the station’s Facebook followers wondered what was being done. Eventually, the father-and-son owners of a local hovercraft company decided to take matters into their own hands and piloted two hovercraft to the lake on Monday. There, Doug and James Kenison found three deer about a quarter mile from shore.
While the deer tried their best to stumble back to safety, the pair attached the animals to their hovercraft with rope and ended up towing them back to shore.
The deer were unharmed and after a bit of recuperation, quickly ran off. James Kenison told ABC 6 that the idea to rescue the deer came naturally to them since they owned a hovercraft company.
“They’re a good tool, especially in situations like this where the ice, you’re just not sure if it’s thick enough,” Kenison said. “We basically had the equipment so we just said, ‘why not?'”
It should be noted that rescuing a large wild animal such as a deer can be dangerous under any circumstances, and doubly so when on a partially-frozen lake.
