Kayak Tour Rescues Baby Fawn from Drowning

Occurred on July 21, 2021 / Munising, Michigan, USA

Info from Licensor: In July, I went on a road trip to Michigan’s UP with my cousin and her husband. I am an avid kayaker and have been looking forward to kayaking the Pictured Rocks for years. Due to the dangerousness of Lake Superior, the only option was to do a guided double sea kayak tour. I ended up being paired with the tour guide, who was responsible for the group of six double kayaks. Shortly after we started, we came upon a fawn in a cliff area. The guide asked me to film. We had to wait for our group to catch up and immediately, the group decided we were going to work together to help the fawn. The waves you see are from a tour boat that drove right by the deer. Initially, our kayak and two others in our group attempted to cut the fawn off and guide it towards the beach. However, he kept trying to jump on our kayaks and then would swim further away from the beach (3 times this happened). The deer reached the cliff wall and we hesitated to go under the cliff, as the week prior there had been a large cliff collapse and we were heavily advised not to be as close as we were. I tried to use my paddle to boost him on the rocks, to give him a break while we figured out the next step, but the waves kept knocking him around. Eventually, Sydney dropped her paddle and grabbed the fawn, pulling him onto her lap. We then paddled to the shallow area by the beach, and she was able to set him down and he just walked off into the woods. This ordeal took place over about 30 minutes, much of which isn’t on film (I can’t film myself helping). There is no phone service in this area, so we could not call someone to help. We suspect the fawn ran over the cliff from a predator, as it was quite far from a flat area.