There is one lucky deer roaming Bowen Island.
It was rescued from a narrow cliff edge off Taylor Road on Wednesday afternoon.
Alex Vallee was walking by the cliff and heard rocks fall. He managed to spot the deer and called the municipality, setting the rescue efforts in motion.
Bowen Island Fire Chief Ian Thompson says it’s not known how long the deer had been stranded. It had somehow got under a wire-mesh fence about a quarter-way down the cliff. It landed on a narrow outcropping and couldn’t get back over the fence. Below was an approximately eight-metre sheer drop to the ground.
Volunteer firefighters worked with the RCMP and conservation officers to free the deer, making use of a local boom truck.
A conservation officer and firefighter went up in the truck’s basket to get close to the deer, which was barely moving.
“It could have been there for days,” Thompson says. “It was exhausted.”
The deer was tranquilized and then brought down to terra firma in the bucket.
Conservation officers checked to make sure there were no broken bones and then stayed with it as the tranquilizer wore off. Thompson said that when the firefighters left around 7pm, the deer was awake and alert.
