Fox becomes latest victim of Scandinavian chill after freezing in a lake - PHOTO

The animal was discovered by a skater on Lake Bunn, near Jönköping, who originally thought it was a piece of foam rubber, but found the poor fox dead in the ice with its head just above the surface.It follows recent 'animal ice deaths' in Scandinavia, where an entire shoal of fish were photographed off the coast of Norway just days after a moose had suffered the same fate.Jeffer Sandström, 26, said: ‘From what I could see the ice had obviously cracked and the fox had fallen through the hole. Unable to get out after scrabbling around it must have tried to swim under the ice in a last-ditch effort to save itself and then probably suffocated.’He said: ‘I'd been unsure myself as to whether skating on a lake here in Jönköping was a good idea. ‘Temperatures had been below zero for several days though, so in the end I figured it was strong enough for a skate. I guessed the ice was likely between three and five centimetres thick.’‘I skated fairly close by and saw it out of the corner of my eye and thought someone had thrown foam rubber of something into the water, and then I saw it was a fox,' Jeffer told Aftonbladet.'It was totally frozen, the whiskers were sticking up above the surface.'He added: ‘I'd never seen anything like it before. I must admit I felt really sorry for the fox, but not for long, because I felt if it can happen to the fox, I might be next.’‘I just thought “Whoops, it's time to go home”.’The is is not the first time animals have been caught out by freezing temperatures in Scandinavian waters. Last week an entire shoal of fish was found frozen mid-swim off the coast of Norway, near the northern island of Lovund. Earlier in the winter, a moose was found frozen solid after falling through the icy surface of a Norwegian lake, found half visible above the ice.It appears as though it was trying to cross the ice, when it cracked, trapping the moose in the freezing water.(dailymail.co.uk)ANN.Az