Close to nature: Baby deer couldn't scramble up embankment 0
A young fawn trapped at the bottom of a steep muddy back on the Ganaraska River near the Ganaraska Region Conservation Authority was discovered by terrestrial ecologist Ken Towle when he heard its cries. The fawn was rescued when Towle pointed out its dilemma to approaching kayakers.
Paul Paget and his 65-year-old father Ken got an up-close-and-personal encounter with nature while kayaking along the Ganaraska River near Port Hope last month.
The Oshawa residents were paddling downstream when a territorial ecologist with the Ganarasaka Region Conservation Authority (GRCA) called out to them, Paul Paget said.
There was a bit of a current where they were and the GRCA's Ken Towle directed them to the far side of the river from where Towle was standing just ahead of them, he said.
There, on the side of a steep, muddy embankment was a stranded fawn.
While his father held his kayak, Paget said he spent a fair bit of time patting the little, frightened animal. When he finally picked it up, before struggling himself through the mud up the bank to put it on stable ground, Paget said the fawn was almost "embracing his presence."
The little thing could have died if it had got caught in the current or if a predator like a coyote had come along.
It was the lamb-like bleating of the fawn which had caught Towle's attention while he was walking along the Millennium Trail alongside the river near the GRCA headquarters on County Road 28 north of Highway 401 during his lunch break on May 24.
"It was very sheep-like, but high-pitched," Towle said in an interview.
Hearing these strange cries and unable to identify them Towle followed the trail and then saw the little fawn trapped at the bottom of the muddy bank next to the river. Unable to get across the river to the isolated spot, Towle was encouraged when he heard voices and the Pagets appeared in their watercraft.
They hadn't yet come to the location of the fawn and because it wasn't crying out right then they would probably have passed right by it if Towle had not been there to point out the endangered animal.
As the Pagets effected the rescue, Towle was able to capture it on film.
"It was the first time I have had such an intimate encounter with nature like that," Paget said of his experience.
An outdoor enthusiast who enjoys camping, kayaking, mountain biking and other outdoor activities, Paget said he and his father haven't been back to the spot since the rescue but he suspects the fawn's mother stayed hidden, watching until the men continued their river journey after freeing her baby.
valerie.macdonald@sunmedia.ca
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