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Buck ‘stuck in a rut’ ends up in same icy ditch in Colorado for second year in a row

A buck wandered into the same concrete drainage ditch for a second year in a row in Colorado Springs, Colorado, wildlife officials said.
A buck wandered into the same concrete drainage ditch for a second year in a row in Colorado Springs, Colorado, wildlife officials said. Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s Southeast Region

It wasn’t this buck’s first time to be trapped in a concrete drainage ditch in Colorado, wildlife officials said.

The buck that was found on Dec. 1 in Colorado Springs had also been trapped in the same icy concrete culvert one year ago, the Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s Southeast Region said in a tweet.

“Same buck, same culvert, stuck exactly one year apart, to the day. It was hard to resist saying this buck is in a rut. Oooops!” wildlife officials said.

Wildlife officers knew it was the same deer because they had tranquilized and tagged it last year.

The officers then released the deer about 2 miles east from where they found it.

But it made its way back to the same culvert.

Now wildlife officials said they hope it learned its lesson.

“Hopefully the buck has learned to avoid concrete culverts. But we’ve got Dec. 1 circled on our 2023 calendars!”

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This story was originally published December 13, 2022 at 6:41 PM with the headline "Buck ‘stuck in a rut’ ends up in same icy ditch in Colorado for second year in a row."

Helena Wegner
McClatchy DC
Helena Wegner is a McClatchy National Real-Time Reporter covering the state of Washington and the western region. She’s a journalism graduate from Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. She’s based in Phoenix.
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