Injured deer rescued from Skaha Lake and returned to the wild

A deer rescue that took place on Penticton's Skaha Lake yesterday has a happy ending.

On Saturday morning, Jan. 18 at roughly 8:45 a.m., Penticton conservation officer Clayton Debruin received a report of a deer trapped on the ice in the middle of Skaha Lake, in Penticton.

When he arrived at the scene, he saw a coyote circling the deer.

With the help of the Penticton Fire Department’s ice rescue team, crews were able to rescue the deer and returned to shore to assess its injuries.

“Its tail was bitten off by the coyote and that supported our belief that that’s how the deer ended up in the middle of the lake,” Debruin said.

The injuries were determined to be non-life threatening and the deer has been released back into the wild, he said.


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Carli Berry

Carli Berry has been telling stories in the Okanagan for the past three years and after finding her footing in the newspaper industry, joined the Infonews team in January 2020. Recipient of the 2019 MA Murray award for feature writing, Carli is passionate about stories that involve housing, business and the environment. Born on Vancouver Island, she is happy to say Okanagan Lake reminds, her slightly, of the ocean. Carli can be reached at (250) 864-7494 or email cberry@infonews.ca.

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