Amazing video shows deer swimming in River Don near Sheffield city centre

The amazing footage was captured by Kyle Emmerson, who spotted the creature paddling upstream at Kelham Island yesterday morning.

"I was crossing the Ball Street bridge when I looked over and saw something large coming out from under the bridge,” he said.

"I always look in the river because I’ve seen otters there before, but suddenly I realised it was a deer!

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"I couldn’t believe my eyes. I immediately thought it was in trouble but then I saw it was swimming strongly and didn’t seem to be distressed so I filmed it as I thought no one would believe it.

"It was swimming west out of the city so it must have climbed up the weir at Kelham, which I later saw photos of.

"I contacted the RSPCA to see if it needed rescuing but they reassured me that deer sometimes do swim like this and unless it was struggling the it was OK.

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"Someone later replied to my video saying they had seen it further up the river passing Church – Temple of Fun, so it was certainly determined to get home, wherever that may be.

Sheffield’s visitor website TheOutdoorCity shared a photo of the deer, saying: “With lockdown seeing a boost in their numbers, sightings of deer in more urban parts of Sheffield are definitely becoming more common.”

Adam Bayliss, from the Environment Agency, said: “I have it on good authority that they’d have been quite happy swimming round and exploring the island.

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"It’s really nice to see nature so close to urban centres…. it’s called @theoutdoorcity for a reason.”

The latest sighting is a throwback to the first lockdown, when wildlife rarely seen in urban areas made the most of the quieter streets and popped up in some unusual places.

Back then, a Muntjac deer was seen trotting around a city centre car park and a badger was spotted on the deserted concourse of Sheffield railway station.

Earlier this week, a herd of deer brought traffic to a standstill on the M1 in South Yorkshire after wandering close to the carriageway near Barnsley.