{"id":29138,"date":"2024-02-21T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-21T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/deer-clotheslined-by-cable-in-durango-prompts-warning-from-wildlife-officials\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T00:49:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:49:20","slug":"deer-clotheslined-by-cable-in-durango-prompts-warning-from-wildlife-officials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/deer-clotheslined-by-cable-in-durango-prompts-warning-from-wildlife-officials\/","title":{"rendered":"Deer clotheslined by cable in Durango prompts warning from wildlife officials"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Colorado
Colorado Parks and Wildlife Officer Luke Clancy responded to a situation involving a deer caught in a metal cable in a backyard Feb. 6 near Miller Middle School in Durango. Every year, officers respond to about three incidents of deer with antlers caught in various snag hazards. Clancy was able to tranquilize the deer and successfully unravel the wire. (Courtesy of Colorado Parks and Wildlife)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

It was 5:30 a.m. when Colorado Parks and Wildlife Officer Luke Clancy got the call from a resident on the north side of Durango, near Miller Middle School, about a buck thrashing in the backyard.<\/p>\n

Earlier that morning, the male mule deer had gotten its large set of antlers caught in a metal cable that had been strung across the unfenced yard as a dog run.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was well tangled up,\u201d Clancy said. \u201cIt had destroyed a lot of the backyard, been doing flips around and tore out some stumps, tore the post down on one side of the cable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every year, antlered wildlife \u2013 primarily mule deer and elk \u2013 are caught in fences, hammocks, volleyball nets, string lights and other snag hazards.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

When Clancy arrived to the scene on Feb. 6, he shot the deer with a tranquilizer dart.<\/p>\n

The animal, exhausted from trying to escape the cable for over an hour, collapsed sedated within five minutes. It took another five minutes for Clancy to unravel the cable, do a physical exam and tag the animal before administering a reversal drug.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a constant struggle,\u201d he said of warning the public to remove snag hazards. \u201c\u2026 They\u2019re so comfortable around everything that we put up that it\u2019s a common occurrence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u201cIt\u2019s
\u201cIt\u2019s a constant struggle,\u201d said Colorado Parks and Wildlife Officer Luke Clancy of warning the public to remove snag hazards. \u201c\u2026 They\u2019re so comfortable around everything that we put up that it\u2019s a common occurrence.\u201d (Courtesy of Colorado Parks and Wildlife)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

This incident ended happily \u2013 but not all of them do. Stressed antlered ungulates can break their neck as they writhe to try to escape restraints, or can suffocate.<\/p>\n

And snag hazards are just one of several threats that humans can pose to wildlife.<\/p>\n

In January, CPW put out a similar warning<\/a> about metal fences that can entrap yearling deer. Clancy said he has also noticed an increase in humans feeding deer in the Durango area.<\/p>\n

By midwinter, deer can start to look hungry, prompting humans to step in. He said people sometimes leave dog food, bird seed or other snacks out for the animals.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, that comes from a desire to help animals but it comes from people not understanding animals,\u201d Clancy said. \u201cThey existed for hundreds of thousands of years without us and they can do just fine without us feeding them through the winter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deer that become accustomed to humans feeding them become pushy or even aggressive, he warned, adding that its creates a bad situation for deer and for people.<\/p>\n\n

This year\u2019s relatively mild winter has meant that deer are able to survive the large storms, and instead migrate toward the more moderate temperatures in New Mexico. But the north-south migration means crossing U.S. Highway 160, which runs east-west.<\/p>\n

Clancy said he expects another \u201cbig kill\u201d as the deer start to move north once again when spring arrives.<\/p>\n

If deer are killed by traffic, human scavengers can harvest the meat so long as they obtain a permit from a CPW office. But, Clancy warns, keep an eye out for ear tags. Blue ear tags, the kind he attached to the deer involved in the Feb. 6 incident, have a date before which the animal\u2019s meat should not be consumed, to ensure the drugs have fully worked their way out of the deer\u2019s system.<\/p>\n

\"Every
Every year, officers respond to about three incidents of deer with antlers caught in various snag hazards. Clancy was able to tranquilize the deer and successfully unravel the wire. (Courtesy of Colorado Parks and Wildlife)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

If residents do spot a tangled deer, Clancy warns against approaching the animal. Sharp antlers paired with a powerful, stressed deer can lead to a bad outcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would never advise someone to go out and try to cut a deer out on their own,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Instead, report the animal to the on-call wildlife officer via Colorado State Patrol, at (303) 239-4501 or by calling 911.<\/p>\n

rschafir@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

reminds residents to limit snag hazards<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1031,950,28,603],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-29138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado-parks-and-wildlife","tag-durango","tag-headlines","tag-wildlife"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29138"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80642,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29138\/revisions\/80642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29138"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=29138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}