Oh deer!: Young buck meanders into Ardrossan rink
Article content
A rare wildlife encounter at the Ardrossan Recreation Centre (ARC) has left some recreation staff with a fawn memory.
No, he wasn’t early for the annual Santa’s Skate.
While performing early morning ice maintenance on Nov. 24, one of ARC’s staff members opened the bay door of the Zamboni room to help cool the area down a bit, and soon the county worker discovered he was not alone.
“While he was out working on the ice, he noticed a noise behind him and a brand-new visitor had joined him — a young buck,” said Josh Koke, facility supervisor for rural recreation facilities with Strathcona County. “It was an interesting surprise… I caught him outside on grainy CCTV. I saw this buck running around in the distance, then I see him by our Zamboni room door; he came over, investigated, and came in.”
The quick two-minute encounter took place just before 8 a.m.
Not wanting to spook the deer, staff were conversing back and forth about how to safely get the animal back outside, but in the end, the deer figured it out himself.
“He trotted around the ice for a little bit. He tried to figure out his footing, then he took a seat to rest for a little bit,” Koke detailed. “As soon as he got back to the door, he went back out and wandered away again. It was over and done so quickly that staff didn’t have to figure how to proceed next.”
Strathcona County’s picture of the deer posted to its social media platforms on Dec. 1 has garnered more than 1,100 likes and hundreds of shares. The story was also quickly picked up by some Edmonton media organizations.
“It’s a new opportunity for some more recreational programming: wildlife skating. We’re always looking at ways to bring in more guests,” Koke joked.
It’s not out of the norm to see deer and other wildlife around the ARC grounds, however, the animals don’t typically interact with staff or residents, nor do they enter local facilities, according to the facility supervisor.
“It’s one of the fun things about working in rural Strathcona… This was out of the ordinary for us. It was a nice little visit,” Koke laughed. “This was definitely an anomaly that’s why one of our staff took a picture because we just couldn’t believe he was out there sitting on the ice for a couple of moments. We thought it would be funny, but we didn’t expect this kind of reaction to the photo and our experience.”
lmorey@postmedia.com
twitter.com/LindsayDMorey
Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.