By Steve Hubrecht
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Local conservation officers rescued a mule deer wrapped in wire last week, and were monitoring yet another Invermere urban mule deer that got its antlers tangled in Christmas lights.
The deer in the Christmas lights is the third such ‘real life Rudolph’ in Invermere in the past two winters. When the first incident occurred last winter, right around Christmas time 2020, conservation officers noted they’d never dealt with an incident like that before, and called it a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. Then this winter, once again right around Christmas time, another one of Invermere’s resident urban mule deer got its antlers tangled in Christmas lights.
The third Christmas light deer still, as far as the Pioneer is aware, has the lights tangled around its antlers and is wandering around the CastleRock area.
Conservation officers first heard about the Christmas light deer, a buck, late last week, on Thursday, Jan. 27.
“The lights are not hindering the buck’s movement, so we are monitoring it. It should shed its antlers very soon, and the way the Christmas lights are wrapped in the antlers, they should come off easily along with the antlers,” conservation officer Greg Kruger told the Pioneer, adding this carries the added benefit of conservation officers not having to tranquilize the buck, which they prefer to do only if it is absolutely necessary.
“With the cold weather, it’s better for the deer to avoid tranquilizing them, if we can,” said Kruger.
Another young urban mule deer buck in Invermere did need tranquilizing last week, however. It had become entangled in wire from a tomato basket.
Conservation officers received calls about the wire-wrapped deer on Wednesday, Jan. 26., and searched for it. They were unable to locate the buck, but then received another call on the morning of Thursday, Jan. 27 from a woman on the 1700 block of 13th Avenue who had spotted the wire-wrapped deer standing under her neighbours’ porch. The officers went to the scene and found the buck there.
“It was in obvious distress and not doing too well,” said Kruger. They tranquilized the deer, then removed the wire, and stayed with deer to ensure it was fine upon waking up.
“This type of thing, with the wire tomato basket, unfortunately happens a bit too frequently in Invermere,” said Kruger. “The deer is foraging, it finds the plant in the basket and then sticks its head in. But these baskets are typically quite a bit wider at the top and then get progressively narrower. So the deer keeps sticking its head in as it eats, and then it gets stuck. The basket then works its way down the deer’s neck, the wires stretching out and get pulled as the deer struggles to get out, and then the wire gets wrapped right around it shoulders and torso, which is a big problem.”
