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On Saturday night, while Patrick Hemstreet was checking his email in his home office in Pine, Colo, his wife called him upstairs and told him to look out the front window. Amongst the pine trees and aspen, Mr. Hemstreet spotted a herd of about 40 deer, including a large bull crowned with a hairy antler hanger.
“It was right there,” said Mr. Hemstreet. “Our friend with the rubber on his neck.”
He immediately knew who to call.
Residents of Pine, a small town about 30 miles southwest of Denver, have been sending reports to Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials for more than two years when they see a deer with its head somehow stuck in a tire.
The tire slipped down the deer’s neck and got stuck there, locking in place as its antlers developed and branched. Wildlife officials wanted to remove the tire and asked the public for help finding the deer.
Mr. Hemstreet, who moved to Pine about a year ago, was among those who reported to wildlife officials when the deer appeared on trail camera footage or saw him mingling with a herd on his 10-acre property. Grazing or fighting other bulls during the rutting season.
But this time it was different when the deer were so close, Mr. Hemstreet said in an interview Tuesday.
Mr. Hemstreet sent a text message to Dawson Swanson, a wildlife official who lives nearby. The two had talked about the deer so often that Mr. Hemstreet didn’t have to specify what he was texting about.
“It’s in my front yard now,” she wrote. “Easy shot.”
“I’m on my way,” replied Mr Swanson seven minutes later.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife, part of the state’s Department of Natural Resources, said in a statement On Monday, Mr. Swanson calmed the 4-and-a-half-year-old deer, which weighs 600 pounds. He and another wildlife officer then cut off the deer’s antlers so that the tire could be pulled over its head.
It’s the fourth time in a week that wildlife officials have tried to calm the bull, the department said. Mr Swanson said the process can be challenging as the sedative equipment only works a short distance away.
Wildlife officials had been searching for elk since July 2019, when an officer found him while conducting a population survey of bighorn sheep and mountain goats in the Mount Evans Wilderness, a national forest area.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife said its officers have seen animals trapped in hammocks, clotheslines, chicken mangers, laundry baskets, volleyball nets “and yes, tires,” among other traps of human civilization.
“We probably calmed six to 10 deer and elk deer each year in everything from basketball hoops to trash cans,” said Scott Murdoch, a wildlife official who helped remove the tire from the deer’s neck, in an interview. “It’s a pretty common practice for us to cut off the antlers.”
How the deer got through the tire in the first place remained a mystery. Colorado Parks and Wildlife said in a statement that the tire may have been part of some kind of feeder, but Mr Murdoch said the tire could have been used as a swing.
Wildlife officials said that after the elk was first spotted with a tire, it spent the next two years roaming between Park and Jefferson Counties, disappearing for long periods of time, especially during the winter months.
In May and June, four attempts were made to capture the bull at Conifer, about eight miles north of Pine. Wildlife officials said the sightings congregate near Pine in September and early October, as bulls become more active during the rutting season.
“They just wander, eat and mate,” said Mr Hemstreet. “He always stays out. He’s big.”
Mr Hemstreet said the deer had appeared near his home at least nine times before he made the final call on Saturday. He said the first time was about a year ago, when he came within range of his trail camera.
““I couldn’t believe what I saw, so of course I posted it on social media and started Google and found out that they had been searching for it for several years.” A neighbor gave him Mr Swanson’s cell phone number.
After receiving Mr. Hemstreet’s message on Saturday, Mr. Swanson entered a neighbor’s yard to get away from the herd, which had already begun to retreat. He fired a shot with the Tranquilizer, and the herd rushed into the trees.
He and Mr. Hemstreet chased. The darkness was growing. With their flashlights they plunged into the dense and steeply sloping forests. It took 45 minutes to track down Elk, and several more attempts were made to calm him down. (Deer metabolize sedatives faster during the rutting season, said Mr Swanson.)
The other wildlife officer, Mr. Murdoch, came to the aid. But a saw blade broke and its battery died as officers tried to cut the steel on the side of the tire of the type used on small cars or trailers. Carrying a new saw blade and batteries, Mr. Swanson and Mr. Murdoch decided that the only way to remove the tire was to use the saw to cut the deer’s antlers.
More than two hours had passed since the first tranquilizer dart struck the deer. The tire, filled with debris and dirt, was eventually passed over his head, and he began to regain consciousness after being given the reverse dose. “He stood unsteadily at first and drifted away into the darkness,” Mr. Murdoch said.
Since then, Mr. Hemstreet said, he began looking up into the hills and looking for the deer.
“I averted my eyes,” he said. “We want to make sure he’ll be okay.”
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