The moment a wolf was rescued from a canal in northern Italy

Firefighters rescued a wolf that had fallen into a canal in the village of San Giovanni Lupatoto, in the Veneto region of northern Italy.

The distressed animal took refuge in flowing water under a footbridge and the fire brigade’s river rescue team arrived to save it.

Firefighters handed over the sedated female wolf to a veterinarian for treatment ahead of release into the wild.

The Italian wolf is a protected species in Italy. About 950 live in Italy’s Alpine region, and more than 3,000 have been recorded nationwide, according to the latest official survey conducted in 2021.