A sheriff used a drone to save three deer stuck in a frozen lake in Wisconsin.

The Green Lake County Sheriff's Office dispatched animal rescuers after receiving a report of multiple deer in distress at the half-frozen Big Green Lake on March 15.

Aerial footage shows how they used a drone to spook the doe and her two fawns into wading toward the shore. Wildlife officers were waiting at the banks to drag the animals to safety.

Sheriff's Detective Josh Ward, who operated the flying machine, said: 'We've done a lot of human rescues, looking for people, lost people, search and rescue stuff, accident scene crashes. Never done one doing a herd deer drive with a drone.

'If we came from the shoreline with a boat, they're just going to try and get away, and you're actually doing more harm than good because you're pushing them further and further away from shore. We couldn't come in from the waterside, because that's obviously all froze over.'

The deer family were later reunited on land and released into the wild.