By Steve Hubrecht
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Columbia Valley conservation officers deal with same bizarre incident for second holiday season in a row

The Columbia Valley’s very own real-life Rudolph is back again, just in time for the holidays. At roughly this same time last year the Pioneer reported on a deer that had gotten Christmas lights wrapped around its antlers. At the time, local conservation officers were able to sedate the distressed animal and remove the lights, and told the Pioneer it was the only time they’d ever dealt with such a case, calling it a once-in-a-lifetime event.

Turns out that a once-in-lifetime event happens twice, and you only have to wait until next Christmas to see it again: another buck had its antlers entangled in Christmas lights in Invermere recently. The buck was one of Invermere’s resident urban mule deer and the incident created a buzz on social media and prompted several local residents to call in to the Pioneer.

During the final week of November, local conservation officers received calls about the buck as well, prompting officer, Matt Hall, to look for it. Hall was the same conservation officer who dealt with last year’s “Christmas lights” deer. “When I saw this year’s deer (on Friday, Nov. 26), it had the lights wrapped around its antlers, but the lights were not interfering with its ability to move about, so it was different in that regard from the buck last year, which had the lights interfering with its behaviour. This buck was acting normal, it seemed in fine health, was on the move and was chasing does, so the situation was definitely not as serious as last year,” Hall told the Pioneer.

Hall attempted to tranquilize the buck to remove the lights, but with buck in the vicinity of the green space around the hospital and Spider Web park, he was unable to find a safe angle to get off a tranquilizer dart shot.

“Since then there have been no calls, no reports of the buck, so it appears most likely that the buck has gotten the lights off by itself, probably by brushing them off on a tree or branch,” said Hall.