KALAMAZOO, MI -- A Kalamazoo public safety officer was startled early Tuesday morning when he checked a motorist's trunk and a deer jumped out and scampered away.

Turns out what was thought to be roadkill was very much alive.

At approximately 2:20 a.m., Public Safety Officer David Miller was on routine patrol, checking parking lots in the 3700 block of E. Cork Street, when he encountered a person sitting in a parked vehicle behind the Red Roof Inn, according to a news release from the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety.

Miller contacted the man, a Kalamazoo-area resident, who told the officer he had a accidentally hit a deer with with his car on an outlying area roadway.

He said he planned to use the meat from the deer to feed his family.

Miller asked if he could inspect the deer to see if it had been properly tagged and accounted for, and the man agreed.

As Miller opened the trunk, the young deer jumped out, quickly acclimated itself to its new surroundings and ran off into the nearby wooded area behind Red Rood Inn.

According to the news release, Michigan's 2,000,000 deer are most active during spring and fall and each year there are more than 60,000 vehicle-deer crashes reported in the State of Michigan.

Motorists who hit deer can request to keep the meat, but need to report the incident and acquire a state deer kill permit.