Photographer Crawls Through Marsh To Save Desperate Dying Animal

Apr 15, 2019 by apost team

Wildlife photographers have to deal with all types of extreme conditions in order to capture rare, amazing shots of animals in their habitat. One thing they rarely do is crawl through cold sticky mud to save an animal. A Polish photographer, Krzysztof Chomicz, did exactly that when he saw a large predatory bird stuck in mud far out from the shore. The rescue that ensued was captured on video by a drone.

Chomicz was near the marshlands of Swinoujscie, a town in the north-west area of Poland, taking pictures of the natural environment when he and some colleagues discovered a large bird caught in oily mud that was exposed by a low tide.

When the men discovered the animal, it was already exhausted from its futile efforts to escape the trap.

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Chomicz realized that the animal could possibly drown if no one acted to help soon. He decided to take the matter into his own hands, so he crawled out through the mud to free the bird while a drone captured the action on video. Chomicz affixed a rope around his midsection. His colleagues remained on the shore so that they could pull him back to safety if necessary.

Chomicz finally reached the large bird of prey. It took a great deal of effort to drag the soil-laden animal through the mud back to the safety of solid land. This is a testament to the photographer's fitness and determination to help a fellow living creature.

After Chomicz reached land, he placed the bird into a sack and took him to a facility for wild animals. The shelter staff hosed off the animal, and a beautiful young eagle was revealed beneath the oily mud. It was identified as a six-month-old white-tailed eagle. The shelter administrators named the eagle "Icarus" in reference to the wing-bearing character from Greek mythology.

Thanks to the heroism of Chomicz and his colleagues, the young eagle can soar once again in the sky in awesome splendor. The video of the rescue is available for people who would like to witness this amazing feat.

Do you think you could have managed to save this animal? Let us know in the comments. If you found this story inspirational, pass it along to your friends and family.