German regional newspaper "Schwäbische Zeitung" first posted the eerie picture on its website of the fox, which is frozen in a solid block of ice.

Hunter Franz Stehle made the grizzly find on the Danube River in the village of Fridingen, in southwestern Germany, at the start of the year.

"We sawed the ice block with the fox inside out of the river on January 2 and then placed it on display in the courtyard of the hunting lodge as a warning," Stehle told the German dpa news agency.

The "Schwäbische Zeitung" reported that fox had crossed the thin ice in early December when it fell in and drowned.

The fox will remain on display outside the family's hotel until the ice thaws.

Stehle told the paper that the animal's fur can no longer be used because it's spent so much time in ice.

He said it was not unusual for animals to break through the frozen surface of the river in winter.

"Once I discovered a frozen deer, and I have found wild boar three or four times in the last 40 years already," he said.

Stehle stressed that the frozen fox was natural, not a prank.

mm/sms (AP, dpa)