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From Boreal Community Media - January 4, 2021

On Saturday, January 2, calls started coming in to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office regarding a deer that had become startled and ran out onto some chunks of ice in the harbor near Artist Point.  Saturday evening, the Point was closed off to deter people from approaching the deer and scaring it. 

On Sunday, Conservation Officers Mary Manning and Kylan Hill came to the rescue.  They used an open motor boat to use ice picks to get closer to the deer.  Once the deer saw them approaching, it hopped ice chunks to get closer to shore, where it then jumped and swam for a bit, using a boat ramp to get to shore.  Officials then kept the Point shut off for a bit long to allow the deer time to rest and recover.  

According to Mary Manning, deer have hollow fur which allows for a nice built in insulating layer.  The deer that was on the ice was a good size deer and appeared to be well-fed.  Although the situation was catching the attention of many locals and tourists, Mary said that deer do not think like we do and it was not in great stress.  The deer was simply resting and waiting for the ice flow to move so that it could eventually make its way back to land.   Mary stated that human contact is more stressful to the deer than being on the ice.  The best thing that humans can do is to stay back and allow nature to take its course.

The community thanks you all for a happy ending to this story!