Deer in Trunk Not Dead: Roadkill Escapes from Michigan Man's Car (Video)

How can you tell if a deer is dead or not? Poking it with a stick may not be enough. Public Safety Officer David Miller opened the trunk of a car expecting to find roadkill. Instead, he found a very much alive deer which leapt out of the car and then scampered into the nearby woods.

At about 2:20 a.m., Miller was on a routine patrol when he found a person sitting in a parked vehicle. The Michigan man in the car said that he had accidentally hit a deer on an outlying area roadway and that he was now transporting the remains of the animal in the hopes of using the meat in order to feed his family. Motorists who hit deer can request to keep the meat, but need to report the incident and acquire a state deer kill permit. Because of this, Miller asked if he could inspect the deer to see if it had been properly tagged. The man agreed.

As Miller went to open the trunk, though, the young deer suddenly jumped out. It scrambled for a moment, falling over, before quickly getting to its feet. Without looking back, it dashed for the woods as the security officer stared in disbelief.

While deer were once somewhat rare in the U.S., their population has boomed in recent decades. Deer live on forest fringes. As people continue to cut into forests, they inadvertently create more habitat for the deer. A lack of predators, such as wolves, has also caused the number of deer to increase. In fact, the animals can often be found grazing on golf courses and lawns in some areas.

Michigan alone has more than 2 million deer which are most active during spring and fall each year. Because of the amount of deer, there are also a significant amount of car collisions. More than 60,000 vehicle-deer crashes are reported every year in the state. Yet it's apparent from the latest incident that some deer survive these near-death encounters.

Want to see the incident for yourself? Check out the video below, originally appearing here.