Wild Deer in New York City!!

For real. No joke. Here's the story:

Nicole and I both recently finished reading The Last Algonquin, a true story about an American Indian named Joe Two Trees. Joe lived most of his life on Hunter's Island, which is now part of Pelham Bay Park. His story, recounted by Theodore Kazimiroff, is simply amazing. We decided to take a bike trip from our apartment and search the island, hoping to find some kind of inspiration. Aside from the book, we didn't know much more about the island. It was with this very open-ended mindset that Nicole and I decided to conduct our own field expedition.

Just another day in the largest city in North America . . .

After a quick swim to cool off after the ride, we set out across the field that connects Hunter's Island to the Bronx and commenced our search. As you can see in the video, it's not hard to tell man's artificial land ends and where New York's nature begins.

We enjoyed walking around the "island" (it is 3/4ths surrounded by water), but except for an interesting insect, we didn't see much in the way of wild nature. Granted, the tall trees were quite majestic, and the island's natural, rocky shores were more reminiscent of the rural Maine coastline than that of New York City, but we didn't see anything that was startling and unbelievable. After about half an hour of walking, the dirt path turned to pavement. Our search was almost over.

As we were walking back towards the beach, however, I spotted a friend who was looking at me. He had several other friends. Four of them to be precise. They each walked on four legs and had beautiful antlers atop their heads. My jaw dropped. Nicole and I couldn't believe it: Wild Deer in New York City of all places!!

Does the spirit of Two Trees live on? After this day, we were convinced. It had to have been a sign. Your thoughts? Watch the videos and judge for yourself.