Lessons Learned
One of the most common calls wardens receive involve dealing with wildlife. Most are simple and easy to address. However, some are complicated and even dangerous.
One wildlife call I took November 30, 2010, turned from routine to extremely dangerous in a hurry.
It was cold and snowing that morning when I received a call from a landowner about two whitetail deer, an 8x8 and 4x4, that were locked together. When I arrived the two deer could not be found, so the farmhand and I walked the property looking for the deer. The property was covered with large tumbleweeds making the search challenging. We eventually located the two deer still locked together on the iced-over creek.
The portion of the creek where the deer were located had steep sides that were about 15 feet high. The two deer were still very lively and based on their location and vigor I knew I was not going to be able to get close to the deer to cut them loose by hand.
At this point I should have gone back to my patrol vehicle and retrieved my shotgun to shoot the antlers apart. My patrol vehicle was over one-half mile away, it was cold and snowing and I did not want to trek back to the vehicle and then try and locate the deer again. I pulled out my pistol, took careful aim and fired. I could see the bullet hit the antlers based on how the heads moved, but nothing happened. I steadied myself for a second shot and just as I pulled the trigger the smaller 4x4 buck lunged forward. My bullet struck him in the head. I immediately euthanized the deer.
Now my problem had become more challenging as I still had a very much alive 8x8 buck locked together with a dead one. I walked back to my patrol vehicle and with the landowner’s permission we drove around to the other side of the creek where I had better access.
I grabbed my hand saw and surveyed the creek bank and worked my way down to the icy creek below. When I got on the ice the big buck got very nervous and started dragging the dead buck backwards toward open water. I managed to grab the legs of the dead buck and slowly played tug of war as I worked my way toward the head of the 8x8. All the while I am doing this the landowner is standing on the bank laughing and saying that you would never catch him doing that.
After I got my hands on the antlers of the two deer, I still had the problem of trying to cut the antlers apart. If I let go to cut the antlers the big buck would pull himself and the dead deer to open water and if I didn’t let go, I could not cut the antlers. The farmhand seeing my issue scrambled down the creek bed and held the dead deer down. I grabbed the 8x8s antlers and wrestled him to the ground. Once I had control of the deer, I cut off the left side antler.
Once the antler came off, I let go thinking it would be like the videos you see on YouTube and the 8x8 would shake his head and run off. Instead, I had a very upset buck that was not educated on what I was trying to do. I was unable to wrestle him back to the ground and had to cut the right-side antler off with him standing up staring me right in the eyes. While I was cutting the right-side antler off, the farmhand scaled the bank back up to the top leaving me on the ice by myself.
When the right-side antler broke, the two deer were free. Again, I was thinking he would run off maybe stopping to look back thanking me for his freedom before running away. That is not what happened. The buck once freed took a step back and then drove his antlers into the dead 4x4 as hard as he could driving the body back toward me. He then took another step back and stared right at me contemplating how he wanted to skewer me.
At this point I had nowhere to run and even if I did it would not have mattered as we were less than 6 feet apart. I sat on the icy creek with my saw in one hand and my pistol in the other for what seemed like an eternity before the buck finally turned and ran off. I dragged the dead deer up the creek bank realizing I just got very lucky and that this could have turned out very differently.
I now carry my shotgun with me to all calls about deer locked together.
- Game Warden Andrew Dahlgren