A young deer (right) recuperates from auto accident at the Witter Wildlife Refuge with resident Nursemaids Franco (left) and Bamboo (center). Photo By David Furman

Our most recent deer rescue involved a yearling fawn found wandering in circles in a ladies backyard. The deer was disoriented and bleeding from the nose and mouth.  It had a gash above her eye and a few other abrasions that indicated she had either run into something or had been hit by a car. 

When Cyndi and I arrived on the scene the poor little deer was quite confused.  She acted somewhat tame as she nibbled on branches just 15 feet away from us but every time we got close enough to think about touching her she ran off to another part of the yard.  She was obviously hurt and needed attention but first we had to determine how wild “dangerous” she might be.

Deer have razor sharp hooves on both front and rear legs.  When they feel the need to defend themselves they stand on their hind legs and start punching with their front feet.  It is not the traditional one-two punch either, its more like 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 punch in rapid succession.  They kind of look like a boxing kangaroo except the deer punches are like dueling claw hammers instead of boxing gloves. Not the kind of hit anyone in a sane mind would risk taking.

With this in mind we decided it safest for everyone involved to tranquilize the deer with a dart.  Deer and other hoofed animals “Rumens” are much more sensitive to tranquilizers than  other animals so it is very important to use very small doses. 

I know of one story in which a rancher tried to tranquilize a 1500 pound bull just enough to make him manageable so he could be led into a trailer.  Despite the fact a very tiny dose was used the bull passed out completely making it impossible to load him until it wore off.  For the deer we use only a drop mixed with sterile water.

It is a very delicate process capturing a wild deer because like many prey animals they have a self destruct reaction to severe stress that causes their heart to burst saving them the agony of a slow death when captured by a predator.  This makes it hard to rescue them because they can die of fright if you are not very careful in how you capture and handle them.

After we darted our patient she relaxed enough to lay down so we could examine her and bind her feet to protect both her and ourselves from potential injury.  Even with three people and a tranquilizer the deer managed to draw a little blood and raise a few bruises before submitting to our help. We transported her to the refuge  where we were able to give her some medical treatment. We release her into our very large deer enclosure for observation and recouperation.

We have two resident deer, “Franco and Bamboo” that mentor our guest deer.  Their interaction calms the patient and helps prevent human imprinting by providing deer companionship.  When it is necessary to check on our patient  Franco and Bamboo will come when called and any visiting deer will generally follow them.

Our patient is doing very well and should be ready to release soon.

We did have an interesting experience when we decided to let Franco and Bamboo visit us in the yard.  Since they grew up around our dogs and cats they like to visit on occasion when we open the gate and let them in the yard.  We left the recovering deer in the enclosure, not wanting to imprint her with friendly dogs and cats.

Both Franco and Bamboo like our two house cats and even groom them on occasion having no fear of them what so ever.  We were quite surprised to see Franco’s  reaction to the two young Bobcats (no bigger than our cats) when he saw them for the first time in the new enclosure near the house.  He raised every hair on his back, started stomping the ground and snorting at them through the double fences that separated them.  The little Bobcats returned the favor snarling and growling as they paced the fence watching him.

I had read that an adult Bobcat is capable of taking down a small deer but I found it hard to believe as even the largest Bobcats do not get much over 30 pounds.  It was obvious watching Franco’s reaction that he must have read the same book and believed every word of it.

It took quite a while to get Franco to finally return to his deer area as he would not take his eyes off the cats.  We finally bribed him to go home with a some grapes.  Bamboo would not return to the enclosure until Feather, the house wolf she grew up with escorted her past the cat cage.

Life is full of surprises when a full grown wolf befriends a deer and provides a body guard escort service.

DONATIONS NEEDED If you would like to help any donation amount  it is greatly appreciated.  Donations should be made out to Witter Wildlife Refuge and can be sent to P.O. Box 1118, Huntsville AR 72740.

See web page under "HOW YOU CAN HELP" for specific ways you can help us help wildlife