TWRA gives advice on helping animals during winter

JACKSON, Tenn. — On Tuesday we showed you a duck being rescued from a frozen pond by local residents. Officials with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency have now shared from tips about what you should do if you think you see wildlife in distress.

Two people, lots of glued pipes and four hours later, Alicia the duck was rescued. Officials with the TWRA say this might not have been the safest decision.

“I would suggest that nobody try to rescue any wildlife off of any frozen ponds or anything like that,” Dan Fuqua, a water fowl biologist, said.

They say that most times frozen ponds are not thick enough to hold up a human.

“And if they fall in, they’re going to get cold and wet and possibly get hypothermia,” Fuqua said.

There are a few things you can do to help out wildlife in these cold temperatures.

“It’s always a good thing to feed wildlife when it gets real cold like this,” Fuqua said. “That’s why we use bird feeders in the winter to help the birds out. Water would be excellent for them when it’s freezing like this.”

Fuqua says to put the food away from your house or on the edge of the forest for the animals to find.

So why was Alicia the duck sitting on a frozen pond?

“That’s a natural habit they use to melt the ice so that they’ll have some open water,” Fuqua said.

The TWRA says sometimes they do help with animal rescues but for the most part they say to just let wildlife be wildlife.