| schema:text
| - Fact Check: Deer covered in snow rescued months ago resurfaces amid US winter storms
A video shows a deer covered in snow being rescued amid the deadly US winter storm. However, the video is not from the US storm. It was shot in Kazakhstan and dates back to February 2021.
Listen to Story
India Today Fact Check
This video is neither recent nor from the US storm. It was shot in Kazakhstan, a central-Asian country, and dates back to February 2021.
The deadly winter storm that struck the US in the run-up to the festive season. The death toll of this historic blizzard has, so far, crossed 60 as heavy snowfall, freezing winds, and a sudden drop in temperature wreaked havoc in the US.
Amid this, a video making the rounds on social media shows a deer standing still in the middle of a road as if frozen amid the heavy snow. One person helped the deer get rid of the snow encasing its muzzle, and ran away after the impromptu rescue operation. Many claimed that this incident showed the harsh effect of the US Cold wave.
A Twitter user sharing the video wrote, “This extremely cold weather across many parts of the USA & Canada has been extremely harsh for people & wildlife. This crazy footage shows two walkers who spotted a deer with its mouth, eyes & ears completely frozen over. The brilliant effort to help! Stay safe everyone.” Archives of such posts can be found here, and here.
AFWA found that this video is neither recent nor from the US storm. It was shot in Kazakhstan, a central-Asian country, and dates back to February 2021.
AFWA Probe
A reverse image search of keyframes from the viral video led us to an Instagram reel from December 2021. The reel featured the same viral clip, but its title read, “Frozen deer @ -56 degree saved by locals in Kazakhstan.” Russia state-affiliated media RT also tweeted this video of the deer covered in snow on March 4, 2021. This confirmed that the video is definitely not from the ongoing US winter storm.
Further, we found the same video shared by the YouTube channel of “Press TV”, a news channel based in Austria. Posted in March 2021, the video description stated that two Kazakhstan residents, Abylaikhan Kuandyk and Nurzhan Makayev, found a roe deer on a road on February 25, 2021. Roe deer is a species of deer well-adapted to cold environments. Apart from this, the footage was credited to “Nurjan Makaev, Ruptly.” Further, we found the same clip shared on Ruptly as from the Kostanay region in Kazakhstan.
Several other YouTube channels also shared the same clip with the same information along with news reports. Also, the two brothers were hailed on social media for their heroic deed.
SDP Noticias, a media outlet based in Mexico, reported the incident in March 2021 stating that the incident took place in Kazakhstan, where two brothers from the Denisov district who were heading home when they saw the deer on the side of the road and decided to help. The report consisted of a four-minute-long video of the incident.
Further, we found an article by KST News that interviewed the two brothers from Kostanay. “It was a shame that other drivers also saw a wandering animal, but drove past. In such cases, you need to stop and try to help,” one of the brothers told KST News. The report also shared a photo of the brothers along with the deer rescued by them.
India Today and GNT also shared this video erroneously as recent but later deleted it. Thus, we concluded that the video of men rescuing a seemingly frozen deer is not from the US.
(Written by Sanjana Saxena)
Please share it on our at 73 7000 7000
You can also send us an email at factcheck@intoday.com
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)