SALT LAKE CITY — 'Tis the season for flying reindeer, so it wasn't too shocking to see four-legged animals with hooves take to the skies over Utah recently.
However, instead of Santa's sleigh, these deer were using a Utah Division of Wildlife Resources helicopter to move around the state. Video shared Tuesday showed up to three deer at a time being lifted into the air and flown in the wild blue yonder.
The bizarre site was courtesy of DWR to show how the department helps track and monitor the deer to learn more about their migration patterns.
Officials say approximately 1,200 deer are captured by biologists around the state each winter and fitted with GPS collars, and then brought to a staging area where DWR performs health assessments before letting the animals back into the wild.
Not sure if that's how Rudolph, Donner, Blitzen and company got their first taste of flying, but it's a start!
