A rope lasso was secured around this buck's antlers before two conservation officers pulled it out of the Takhini River on Thursday. (Environment Yukon)

Conservation officers outside Whitehorse lassoed a deer out of the Takhini River in a dramatic rescue effort Thursday night.

Drivers on the Klondike Highway reported a large buck mule deer struggling in the river current below the Takhini River Bridge around 4 p.m. PT.

Yukon government wildlife officials responded, including senior conservation officer Kris Gustafson, who lassoed the deer's antlers with a rope and pulled it to safety.

"If he hadn't swam upstream and stayed there, directly below me, there's very little we could've done. But he did exactly [that], almost like he knew we were going to help him," Gustafson told CBC News on Friday.

"He swam and treaded water in that one spot until I got the rope around his antlers, and you know, it must've taken him at least five minutes before I was able to loop him properly."

With the help of some bystanders, Gustafson and fellow conservation officer Larry Bill leaned over the edge of the bridge and pulled the deer out of open water and onto solid ice near the shore.

"I had to lean over the bridge myself, which I really wasn't wild about because if I had slipped, I would've been down there with the deer. So it worked out pretty well. It was great."

Getting the rope off the deer was equally challenging, he added, as the buck was "insistent on not being handled."

But Gustafson and a couple bystanders hooked a loop behind the deer's back legs, pulled it to the ground, and put a blanket over its head as the 50-metre length of rope was removed.

Gustafson said the newly freed deer jumped back into the Takhini River briefly, then jumped out safely before it wandered into some nearby woods around 6:30 p.m.