By Steve Hubrecht
Local conservation officers rescued a mule deer with its antlers entangled in a soccer net at David Thompson Secondary School (DTSS) last week.
The buck broke off one of its antlers, but conservation officers expect the animal will otherwise be fine.
The conservation service received a call from a teacher reporting the ensnared deer around 9 a.m. shortly after school began on Monday, Oct. 23.
Senior conservation officer Greg Kruger and his colleague Matt Hall arrived on scene shortly after, used tranquilizers to immobilize the buck, freed it from the net, gave it an ear tag and then released it.
Kruger explained that the buck may have looked at the netting as a sparring partner with the upcoming rutting season, or may simply have inadvertently walked into it, then panicked when it couldn’t get out.
“It struggled pretty hard (to free itself) and it broke off one of its antlers, which takes considerable force,” Kruger told the Pioneer.
The buck was young, in its second year, with two points on each antler.
“It was a very healthy deer, in good condition. It was injured and it will be in pain for a while because of the broken antler, but it will heal and going forward it should be fine,” said Kruger.
Conservation officers put an ear tag on the buck “so we can track it,” he explained.
Trapped and ensnared deer are something conservation officers deal with each year, and unfortunately not all cases end as well as this one did, said Kruger.
The most common way for deer in the Columbia Valley to get entangled is by sticking their heads into wire-mesh tomato baskets. Conservation officers dealt with exactly that scenario just a day before the buck got stuck in the soccer net.
“Any loose items that a deer can get a leg through, head through or antler through offers the chance of entanglement,” said Kruger.
Loose fencing or partially bundled fencing is another common entrapment for deer and Kruger asked, “if people can be aware of it, try to move it, if possible. That would be helpful.”
The worst snaring of deer occurs on wrought iron fences with pointed ends. A local deer impales itself on this kind of fence about once a year on average, outlined Kruger.
“If the fence is very high the deer don’t try to jump over it. But if it is somewhat high — say three or four feet — most deer will still try to jump over it, but sometimes some of them will not make it over. It’s tragic,” said Kruger. “We try to discourage people from building that particular kind of fence, at least at that height.”
Such impalings are almost always fatal for the deer, and occur in Edgewater, Radium Hot Springs, Invermere, Windermere, Fairmont Hot Springs, and Canal Flats. The most recent impaling was six weeks ago in Invermere and ended with conservation officers euthanizing the deer.