Firefighters pluck duck from icy pond in Lower Saxony

Lower Saxony: A fire department in the German state of Lower Saxony intervened when a duck's feathers froze to the surface of a pond near a sewage treatment plant.

The crew successfully freed the bird from its predicament, a fire department spokesman in the city of Braunschweig reported.

The duck was then handed over to a Braunschweig animal protection organisation, which also arrived at the scene, the local Braunschweiger Zeitung newspaper reported.

It was initially unknown if the animal was sick or injured, the German dpa news agency reported. However, the nature conservation organisation Nabu says that healthy ducks and other waterfowl do not usually freeze to ice.

Even if they waddle around on the ice for hours, such birds do not get cold, Nabu said. The creatures have a highly efficient heat exchange system in their limbs, meaning they lose little warmth even when their feet are in direct contact with the ice. That also stops the ice form melting beneath them.

However, sick or injured animals do freeze to the ice and need human help when the cold sets in for a long time.