Two mule deer bucks were brawling so hard with each other, they tumbled into a window well and crashed through the plate glass into the basement exercise room of a suburban Denver home.
The raucous incident happened at about 12:30 a.m. Sunday, in Roxborough Park, a semi-rural neighborhood adjacent to a Colorado state park of the same name, according to reports.
After the befuddled homeowner called for help, Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) agents showed up and shot the bucks with tranquilizer darts.
The zonked-out deer, which apparently suffered only minor cuts, were too much for CPW personnel to move, so firefighters from West Metro Fire Rescue were brought in to assist.
The deer were taken back outside, tagged by CPW, and released, West Metro reported.
It’s not the first time that deer have broken into a suburban Colorado home.
In 2022, a mule deer buck tried fighting his own reflection in a plate glass window in Colorado Springs. He crashed through the glass and was discovered chilling in the basement home office.
That deer was also tranquilized by CPW, hauled outside and released.
Mating Season Battle
It’s likely that the bucks were sparring because this is the time of year for the mule deer rut, or mating season.
Deer and other wildlife are common in the Roxborough area, West Metro spokeswoman Ronda Scholting told Cowboy State Daily.
“It’s a subdivision with a wildland-urban interface,” she said.
West Metro has been involved with other animal rescues there, including saving dogs, horses or deer that had fallen through ice, she said.
“We haven’t pulled a deer out of somebody’s basement before, as far as I know,” Scholting said.
Firefighters used a “MegaMover” to get the tranquilized bucks out of the house, she said.
It’s essentially a large, reinforced canvas tarp, with grip handles along the sides. Firefighters slid it underneath each deer in turn, grabbed the handles and gently carried the animals out, she said.
Biologist Not Surprised
Retired wildlife biologist Franz Camenzind of Jackson told Cowboy State Daily that he wasn’t entirely shocked to hear about rutting bucks crashing through a window.
“I’m sorry that happened, but I’m not surprised,” he said.
When bucks fight during the rut to determine who gets to mate with female deer, they’re not playing around, he said.
“It’s serious business for them,” Camenzind said.
It’s even possible that the bucks saw their own reflections in the glass and got confused over who to butt heads with, he added.
“It gets pretty ugly sometimes, when the gonads migrate to the brain,” he said.
Deer might be drawn to places such as subdivisions because there’s less chance of large predators being there, Camenzind said.
However, it’s still a case of humans building homes in wildlife habitat. And that can lead to conflicts and weird mishaps, like deer crashing through windows, he said.
“When we’re living in their habitat and they are adjusting to our situations, and they are riled up or panicked, it shouldn’t surprise us when things like this happen,” he said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.