Police officers in Green Lake County, Wisconsin, found a creative new use for a drone this month: herding wayward whitetail deer. Drone footage acquired by Outdoor Life shows how the officers used a drone to rescue three whitetails that had fallen through the ice on Big Green Lake and were struggling to make it back to shore.
The Green Lake County Sheriff’s Office received a report about the three deer around midday on March 15 from a member of the public, who’d seen the deer struggling in the lake. The doe and her two fawns had already fallen through the ice, according to the GLCSO. The deer had also become disoriented, and they were slowly venturing further out into deeper water by the time the sheriff’s drone team arrived on shore.
“If we came from the shoreline with a boat, they’re just going to try to get away. You’re actually doing more harm than good, because you’re pushing them further and further away from shore,” Det. Sgt Josh Ward told ABC-6 News about their decision to use the drone as a rescue tool.
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Footage from the drone’s initial flights shows the three deer treading in deep water roughly 200 yards from shore. The two fawns are bunched up with the doe and shivering uncontrollably. They stay close behind mom, but she keeps breaking through the thin ice as she pushes her way deeper into Big Green Lake.
The pilot then brings the drone in close to the confused deer, flying it higher and then back at them repeatedly. The drone’s prop wash, which is annoying to most wild animals, eventually forces the doe and one of the fawns to turn around and swim away from the drone and back to shore. With the drone chasing them all the way, the two deer return to the rocky shoreline where they’re able to get back on dry land.
This leaves just one stubborn fawn stuck in deep water, and the drone pilot again zooms down on the deer in an attempt to push it in the right direction. (The GLCSO says high winds over the lake made things difficult as it kept moving the ice around.) But the footage shows the persistent drone operator finally herding the fawn in the right direction. By the time it reaches the rocks, the deer is too exhausted to pull itself out on its own, so officers use a rope and drag it onto shore.
All three deer walked away from the icy lake unscathed, and the GLCSO thanked local DNR officials for helping coordinate the rescue — a first for the local sheriff’s office.
“We’ve done a lot of human rescues, looking for people, lost people, search and rescue stuff, accident scene crashes,” Ward told reporters. “Never done one doing a herd deer drive with a drone.”
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