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Last Friday, while on the Shubenacadie River for research purposes, Jim Duston and his team came across something extremely unusual.

Jim, DFO’s Sean Smith, and MSc Qi Lu, were out in a boat on the Shubenacadie River retrieving salinity loggers as part of the Alton Gas project when they came across a baby deer stranded in the water. The fawn, wet, cold, and struggling to survive, was plucked from the water by Sean and taken back to shore in their boat. The team wrapped the fawn in a blanket, named her Shubie and returned to campus.

Once on campus, Holly Hines from the Ruminant Animal Centre fed Shubie colostrum from a bottle. As she would require 24 hour care, the decision was made to take Shubie to Hope for Wildlife, a wildlife rehabilitation centre in Seaforth, NS. Meredith Clayden, a research assistant working with the team on the Alton Gas project, transported Shubie to a Halifax.

An update from Hope for Wildlife this morning read that Shubie, weighing 1.4 kg, is the smallest fawn the centre has ever seen in their 20 years of practice. Despite the conditions she was rescued from, Shubie is healthy and strong, and eating regularly. She is being kept with four other small deer, but she is still the smallest. She will be kept at Hope for Wildlife until early December when she will be released the day after hunting season closes, giving her a head start in life.

Special thanks to Sean Smith, Jim Duston and Qi Lu for rescuing Shubie, Holly Hines and Jean Lynds for making sure she didn’t go hungry for long, and Meredith Clayden for transporting her to Halifax to be taken to Hope for Wildlife. Without the help of these individuals Shubie may not have had her second chance at life.  

Photo courtesy of Hope for Wildlife's Facebook page.