Above: A Sitka black-tailed deer rests on a boat after being rescued from the water. (Photo courtesy of Trooper Kyle Feuge)
Ketchikan, Alaska (KINY) – Alaska Wildlife Trooper Kyle Feuge and Sergeant Mark Finses conducted an unusual rescue on the afternoon of Oct. 10 near Ketchikan.
“Sergeant Mark Finses and I were coming back from patrol near South Etolin Island. Observed two deer swimming in the middle of Clarence Strait, just south of Camino Point, Guard Island. They were about four miles to the nearest shore,” Feuge said. “We could tell that they were definitely exhausted due to the strong currents in that area. They weren’t making any headway in the water to where they wanted to go.”
Once the deer saw the boat stop, they swam straight toward it and started swimming circles around their rescuers.
Feuge said they could tell the young deer were exhausted because their backs were low in the water, their eyes were bloodshot and their breathing heavy.
He estimated that the two deer were between one to two years old.
The Troopers waited for the deer to swim towards the back of the boat, and then grabbed them one at a time from the swim step.
“He and I both pulled it up onto the boat and they both just laid down on the deck,” Feuge said. “Too exhausted to put up a fight and they didn’t care where they were. They were just glad to be out of the water.”
It took about half an hour to get to an adequate place to release them on a shoreline. During that wait, the deer continued resting.
“We didn’t want to release them in town to be easy targets for hunters because it is deer season down here. But we released them in an area where we thought they would have the best chance of survival. By the time we got to shore, they were a little bit more alert,” he said. “The first one that we pulled out of water actually stood up and was walking around a little bit, but it still didn’t care to jump off into the water just yet.”
They eventually released them back into shallow enough water to where the deer could stand up and then nudged them onto the shore. The deer eventually walked into the woods after shaking themselves dry, as seen in the Trooper’s video.
“They seemed to be doing okay,” Feuge concluded.
He also emphasized he has often seen deer swim island to island just fine before, and this was a unique incident. Usually, deer don’t need anyone to intervene.
“Deer are adequate swimmers. It’s a common thing that they swim from island to island or island to mainland. It’s part of nature. They get pushed off the islands and shorelines from the predator population,” he explained. “We don’t want people to think that if there’s a deer in the water, they’re in distress.”
If someone does think a deer is in distress, they can call the Alaska Wildlife Troopers for a potential response at (907) 465-4000. The public should never try to assist with a wild animal they think needs help.
