Sometimes, the wrong thing to do is the right thing. Seems strange, right? For one wildlife officer, shooting two deer was truly the only way to save them.
Russ Wright was driving home in Calgary, Alberta, one day when he encountered an incredible scene.
Driving down snowy Canadian roads, you never really know what you are going to encounter. As Russ was driving, he noticed two deer out in a snowy field. While seeing deer isn’t all that uncommon to Russ, especially in Canada, there was something unique about these two.
Both deer were adult bucks and were locked in struggle.
When Russ looked closer at the two deer, they seemed to be acting unlike any deer he had ever seen. Deciding to get a closer look, he drove his car a bit closer to understand the strange movements of the bucks.
Finally, he understood what had happened.
These two bucks had been fighting and headbutting in the middle of the field. Since both of the bucks had such long antlers, they had gotten stuck together! Locked in place, the two of them had been struggling for hours to get free. Angry and scared, their struggling had only made the situation worse.
“I stopped and realized these deer had locked antlers,” Wright told Global News. “That’s crazy because you just don’t see that. They were locked tight.”
Wanting to help the situation, Russ called Fish and Wildlife to come out and see what they could do.
Adult bucks can often be seen antler fighting out in the wild. Most often, they are looking to establish their superiority or trying to get themselves a fine doe before the night is over! These two bucks had probably been fighting for one of these reasons and brought into a much more intimate situation than they ever wanted.
The males will spar with each other using their antlers to establish dominance and claim females. Antlers are also useful for defense against other deer and predators. When fighting other deer, deer hit each other with their antlers and often lock their antlers together. – Sciencing
When Scott Kallweit arrived on scene, he wasn’t sure what to do.
These types of situations can be scary for the deer as well as the humans involved. If Scott got too close, he could risk injury to himself trying to sort out their situation by hand. In his experience, he felt that a tranquilizer wasn’t a good option since the two bucks were so hyped up on adrenaline.
“It was pretty dynamic in terms of them moving around and bouncing around,” Kallweit said. “I knew they had a lot of energy. It was a good possibility that they were probably not going to get separated by themselves.”
Finally, Scott had an idea that was just a bit crazy!
Getting out his 12 gauge shotgun, Scott got as close as the two bucks would allow him. Waiting for the deer to calm down and get used to his presence, he calmly lifted his gun and took a deep breath.
With one round, Scott shot the deer right between the antlers!
While the shot echoed around the forest, Scott and Russ waited to see if the idea worked. As the deer stumbled around, they suddenly came free! The deer had already been in the process and shedding their antlers and Scott just “helped” them along.
Check out the wild video below!
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