A video that showed a "fearless" woman in Berlin, Germany using her bare hands to save a stranded swan has gone viral.
The video was posted to Twitter on Monday by Marcy Mendelson, who wrote: "Swan drama in #Berlin! The elderly lady of Admiralbrucke saves the day. She was braver than all of us." So far, the post has received more than 1.5 million views and over 30,000 likes.
Mendelson also shared the video on Instagram, where it has received more than 1,100 likes.
"The swan had miscalculated its landing & found itself trapped on #admiralbrücke unable to figure out how to return to the water," explained Mendelson on Instagram.
In the video, the swan can be seen walking the Admiral Brücke bridge, but it looks a bit lost. So an elderly woman, who Mendelson said was selling newspapers nearby, approached the bird and grabbed its wings with her bare hands.
The swan, of course, attempted to flee but eventually calmed down. Once the swan stopped flapping its wings, the woman lifts it by the torso and throws it back into the water.
"Swans are dangerous birds & can seriously injure people but this fearless lady took no s**t," said Mendelson in her Instagram post.
Like Mendelson, many people believe swans to be dangerous. In fact, there is a commonly held belief that swans can break arms.
But John Huston of the Abbotsbury Swannery previously told the BBC that this belief is simply a "myth."
"If you approach a swan nest on the river, they might get aggressive and hiss and flap their wings, but the danger is over-rated and it's a myth that they will break your leg or arm with their wings," he said. "They are not that strong and it's mostly show and bluster."
Chris Perrins, the Queen's Swan Warden and retired Oxford ornithologist, added: "[Swans] have a reputation for being a bit aggressive, but it's only that it's a matter of size, I guess. Presumably, a duck wouldn't attack you because you look a bit big."
Still, many online commenters applauded the woman's courage.
"Listen. Listen to me. I would rather fist-fight God than go toe to toe with a goose or a swan. Oma here has nerves of steel I'll tell you what," tweeted Leilani.
"I would cross the street to avoid a swan, so I think the woman in the video is a hero," wrote Twitter user Yvonne Lam.
"This is amazing! We need more people this fearless," added one Instagram user.
