Eight point buck and mate

On Thanksgiving day, in a narrow thicket behind my home, we saw an eight point buck and his mate who seemed to be delaying their journey for some reason. They nibbled a little, the lay down some and rested, and nothing seemed to disturb them---comes with age I suppose.
Now deer aren't uncommon around homes here, but eight point bucks and very mature mates together are! They usually do not make it that many years of age.

I thought they wanted to eat my shrubbery so I casually wandered out to them thinking they would scatter. They did not, nor seem to want to do so! I could get within 10-15 feet before they would casually move a few feet, seeming to say with their motions, why are you bothering me.

Having not run across such behaviour with young deer, I was at first mystified--thinking maybe one of them was ill. But when they both got up and moved around, I thought not.

Then I thought they weren't idiots, that their instinct told them that after dark I would disappear and the
shrubbery would be theirs.

But no, I got my lantern and went back out after dark and found the shrubbery undisturbed and the deer gone.
An odd looking vine in a tree had been stripped a little but that was all.

Then it dawned upon me, these folks were hiding from the hunters. It is deer season and they know it.
They were delaying their trek until dark when they seemed to know they would'd hear the dreaded booms.

I hope the old boy and his mate are coy enough to make it until spring or that they aren't the cause of an auto's destruction!

I really don't know where they will go however. Safety in the woods where there is food for all has just about disappeared

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Submitted by Okie on Sat, 11/29/2008 - 10:11am.

They would be safe in my back yard. We've got 20 acres, 13 of which is in the Whitewater Creek wetlands. We used to put out corn feeders for them in the winter, but corn has gotten so expensive and they can eat a feeder full in a day or two. What's left, my azaleas, and ivy. One winter we had a group of 5 come to the feeder, and then another group of 6 ran them off. The lonely buck got the leftovers. Haven't seen that many deer this year. We had one the other day. It stayed around for quite a while. We also have a small pack of coyotes. Occasionally we can hear them howling at night.

Submitted by Bonkers on Sat, 11/29/2008 - 7:18am.

Will soon be gone. Just as wolves and coyotes are limited tovaste wastelands, so will these animals.

We have made no provision for them in our development efforts. If we had saved them we wouldn't need so much beef and chicken and the horrid turkey, but could eat all of the deer we wanted. It is delicious on a grill!

Somehow the unhealthy ones, in nature, are killed by the wolves, etc., and the ones we get to eat are healthy. Not so our beef!

I'm not suggesting that we get some dinosaur DNA and recreate then to wander, but with the exception of Raptors, they did a lot of good.

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