On Saturday morning, a large deer was spotted running on Johnston Street in Fitzroy and through the city’s inner north.

Though an understandable shock to those who sighted it, “it happens every couple of years or so”, Barry Howlett, long-time executive officer of the Australian Deer Association, tells Broadsheet. “It’s not unprecedented, but it’s certainly not common.”

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Another deer came to be in the suburbs in 2017, the ABC reported at the time. It gained access to a Ringwood funeral home, where it caused $100,000 worth of damage.

Though not in line with the sighting in Ringwood, Howlett has a theory about how the wild deer made its way into the inner north over the weekend. “It most likely came down [alongside] the Yarra, originating from somewhere like Warrandyte. There’s a natural corridor of vegetation and parkland it can easily make its way down.”

“It was spotted at Kew Golf Club earlier in the week, which works with that theory,” he adds. “From the photographs it looks [like] the same [deer].”

It was a young male, which is what Howlett suspected as soon as he heard there had been a sighting. “Invariably, young males go off looking for greener pastures and mates.” But based on the footage he’s seen online, he says the deer looked to be fleeing. “It was certainly in flight – probably because of absolute sensory overload,” he says. “None of the smells of Fitzroy would be something it’s genetically attuned to.”

A spokesperson for Wildlife Victoria confirmed with Broadsheet that the deer was euthanised on Saturday morning.

Vets for Compassion – a not-for-profit dedicated to improving animal welfare through education and training – was also on the scene. In a Facebook post, it wrote: “We received a number of calls from members of the public reporting a deer running on the streets of Abbotsford, Fitzroy and Thornbury … The injured deer was moving very quickly through the streets, but the teams were able to eventually locate him in a park in Thornbury with the help of local police.

“As is protocol with wildlife rescues, the deer was anaesthetised with anaesthetic drugs and pain relief using a tranquiliser dart gun administered by one of our trained vets,” the post continues. “After being assessed, the team of experts and wildlife carers made the joint decision that the humane option was to put him to sleep.”

Despite the scarcity of deer sightings, Howlett says to “give them as much room as you can give them and alert the authorities” if you do see one. “They’re not going to attack you – they’ll be trying to avoid you at all costs. The main danger they pose is to traffic.

“We’re probably lucky that it happened while Melbourne was locked down,” he adds. “But, by the same the token, it might not have even come down that far if we hadn’t been locked down.”