Michigan deer goes for long swim in Straits of Mackinac, stunning onlookers

DETROIT − Angie and Dave Morthland, a retired couple living in the Michigan village of Mackinaw City, watched a deer against the background of a massive Great Lakes freighter go for a swim in the Straits of Mackinac waterway.

The couple was sitting outside last Thursday at their home in the village located on the northern tip of Michigan's Lower Peninsula when they said they were taken by surprise when a deer appeared to enter the waterway and begin swimming.

"I tapped Dave, and said: 'What the heck is that?' " Angie Morthland recently recalled in an interview with the Detroit Free Press, part of the USA TODAY Network. "It didn't look right at first. We thought, is that a moose? Is that an otter? We got the camera out and binoculars and saw it was a deer."

Angie, who said "(It was) astonishing to witness," said it was the first time she had ever seen anything like that.

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The couple said they spied the animal and observed it for more than an hour, although mostly all they could see was an animal's head moving through the fresh water. The Morthlands − who are divided on whether it was a buck or a doe − said that after the deer waded into the water near Fort Michilimackinac, it started making its way west toward McGulpin Point, 2 or 3 miles away.

Conservation groups and experts say there are other documented cases of swimming deer. A deer’s strong leg muscles, as well as its hooves and toes, are key to its ability to swim. They get in the water to find food and escape threats, but they mostly stay on land.

To prove what they saw, the Morthlands took photos, which they shared to at least one friend, who posted them to social media.

"Every time it came toward shore, it would get spooked and swim back out into the straits," said Dave Morthland, 75, noting with his wife that it was their day's entertainment. "It was in the water at least an hour-and-a-half before we got tired of watching it."

The National Deer Association, a conservation group, has collected a variety of the documented cases of deer in rivers and lakes, going up to 2.4 miles. There are undocumented reports of deer swimming even longer distances, 8 to 10 miles.

"We’ve all seen at least one of numerous amateur video clips floating around the internet in which a boater or fisherman captures a deer doggy-paddling its four little hooves off so far from shore it makes us gasp," the association said, adding that it makes "perfect fodder for the 6 o’clock news."

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The Mackinac Straits Raptor Watch − a nonprofit organization that studies the migratory habits of raptors and waterfowl crossing the Straits of Mackinac − said on its website a few years ago that another swimming deer was spotted in the straits also near McGulpin Point.

Its head was "poking up out of the water" and it appeared to be "a young spike buck" that was "heading to St. Helena Island in search of an exotic island mate," the website said. About 15 minutes into his swim, the buck "turned around realizing how unlikely it would be for him to survive the swim."

Many people don't realize it, but the World of Deer website said the animals "are excellent swimmers, reaching speeds of around 15 mph in the water." They cross lakes and rivers looking for food and are "are much stronger and more versatile than you probably imagined."

It certainly was more, the Morthlands said, than what they had ever imagined, except, of course, for reindeer that fly.

Contact Frank Witsil: fwitsil@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Can deer swim? Michigan couple watches animal wading in waterway