Angry deer

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Axis II

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Let me get your guys opinion on this because obviously I am wrong...

I was at the girlfriends house last night which is in a suburb that once was woods, wetlands, etc and now houses. I am talking developments with small 1 acre patches of woods mixed around the deer bed in and then feed in peoples yards. We regularly see deer in the yards, just walking through front yards like its nothing. I had a big spike buck challenge me on the riding mower 2 weeks ago. He came out of the creek and just stood in the back yard as I am riding towards him. He let me get 20yards before taking off.

The other night we walked the dog and she kept pulling towards something in the dark of a neighboring yard. We walked to the corned and coming back a doe and fawn crossed the street where the dog alerted moments before. The doe proceeded to stand on the sidewalk 25yards away and stomp her foot and run away after I yelled at her. Well last night we are walking the dog in the same direction and there is a bigger 4-5yo doe standing in the yard across the street. She is watching us and all of a sudden starts running towards us with her head held high. She stops when I yell at her and as we start walking she stomps and closes another 30-40yards and is now standing on the tree lawn, across the road staring at us. I yell at her again and start walking and she comes a few feet closer. I then started clapping and yelling at her and she took off. I was then scolded for scaring the deer away and was told she was just curious and that they are friendly because the kids feed them out of their hand. I said no... that deer was going to come over and attack the dog or her fawn is around or she thinks the dog is her fawn. That deer was angry IMO.

So, angry deer or just curious and no harm intended?

I once grunted at a buck I jumped out of a thicket and he turned, snort wheezed and shook his head and ran at me. I was also charged by a doe while riding my mountain bike in the metro parks. I had to dismount the bike and hold it in front of me because she wouldn't back down.
 
Deer can get very aggressive whether it is with people or other animals. I have seen does fighting and it can be pretty darned rough. Hair flies and the impact can be heard.

I have been charged twice. Once by an angry buck that I had called in. He broke it off before things became too exciting. The second was a doe that I ended up dropping at less than 10 feet as she reared up to kick. Not sure what her issue was. A buck was chasing her and she came right at me when I was spotted. She had reared up and was flailing her front legs when I touched off. Fortunately i had an antlerless tag, so, no issue there. Even if I hadn't it was a no choice situation. Got the buck also. After I realized what had just happened a short breather to stabilize the heart rate was needed.
 
I'm guessin' your dog really set her off. Note she was with a fawn. Perhaps she has been chased by dogs. I have never personally seen a deer vs. dog (I've seen many deer vs. deer) but I've talked to other hunters and seen video. Deer can really defend themselves - those hooves can kill. This mama deer is not taking any crap from the dog or cat. She's not sure the cat is a threat but that dog is considered a real danger. Look at how she went after it! Watch the false charge on the cat at about 1:40 followed by the real charge. REF:


Basically it's a challenge and/or test I think. This wasn't your situation but I've seen deer do this to me when I've been still "frozen" and they were not initially aware of my presence then suddenly see me. What they will do in this situation is freeze themselves, twist their ears to try and hear you and move their noses to try to scent you. After that they will perform the act you saw. I think they stomp their foot and even do a false charge of a few steps just to see if you will move (in other words if you're really there) and what you will do. Every time with one exception they took off after I yelled back or moved or both. The one exception was a large buck who just stood there, stomped, snorted and stood his ground while I slowly raised my rifle. He found himself in my freezer.
 
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I'm guessin' your dog really set her off. Note she was with a fawn. Perhaps she has been chased by dogs. I have never personally seen a deer vs. dog (I've seen many deer vs. deer) but I've talked to other hunters and seen video. Deer can really defend themselves - those hooves can kill. This mama deer is not taking any crap from the dog or cat. She's not sure the cat is a threat but that dog is considered a real danger. Look at how she went after it! Watch the false charge on the cat at about 1:40 followed by the real charge. REF:


Basically it's a challenge and/or test I think. This wasn't your situation but I've seen deer do this to me when I've been still "frozen" and they were not initially aware of my presence then suddenly see me. What they will do in this situation is freeze themselves, twist their ears to try and hear you and move their noses to try to scent you. After that they will perform the act you saw. I think they stomp their foot and even do a false charge of a few steps just to see if you will move (in other words if you're really there) and what you will do. Every time with one exception they took off after I yelled back or moved or both. The one exception was a large buck who just stood there, stomped, snorted and stood his ground while I slowly raised my rifle. He found himself in my freezer.

That deer in the video would have eaten a few 9mm bullets. Last night when the deer made it across the yard I figured eh, no big deal and when it hit the tree lawn I thought to myself okay, I have a huge back yard as a backstop and a J frame so make sure this thing gets within 5-10ft before firing. I have hunted all my life and been really close to deer and this one actually made me afraid. The GF has a small bulldog and the dog wasn't barking and didn't give two hoots about the deer so IDK what its problem was. I've seen them stand there and blow or stomp when we walk the dog but never run across a yard and attempt to cross the street and come after us. I grew up in the country so I am not used to city deer coming within 10ft of me or eating from my hand. I know its our fault that we destroyed their homes and live in our yards but where she lives is out of control and they need either trapped or shot. I have saw 5 in her yard at a time and she says there is a couple huge bucks too. This year I saw 4 fawns just in her yard.
 
That deer in the video would have eaten a few 9mm bullets. Last night when the deer made it across the yard I figured eh, no big deal and when it hit the tree lawn I thought to myself okay, I have a huge back yard as a backstop and a J frame so make sure this thing gets within 5-10ft before firing. I have hunted all my life and been really close to deer and this one actually made me afraid. The GF has a small bulldog and the dog wasn't barking and didn't give two hoots about the deer so IDK what its problem was. I've seen them stand there and blow or stomp when we walk the dog but never run across a yard and attempt to cross the street and come after us. I grew up in the country so I am not used to city deer coming within 10ft of me or eating from my hand. I know its our fault that we destroyed their homes and live in our yards but where she lives is out of control and they need either trapped or shot. I have saw 5 in her yard at a time and she says there is a couple huge bucks too. This year I saw 4 fawns just in her yard.

I didn't know you grew up in the country so I'm not saying anything you probably don't already know LOL. My experience is that hand fed or not, in the city or country, the behavior you saw was a very typical challenge.

I saw this from inside and stepped out on our rear patio to get a picture - notice how unfazed he is:
IMG_3264s.jpg

So I yelled and stomped my feet. What did he do? He stood up and took a look...I can almost hear him saying "You're kidding...you want a piece of me?"
IMG_2468s.jpg

He took a few nibbles and slowly wandered off no doubt muttering "Silly human...all I wanted was a nap".
 
The buck in my avatar turned and challenged me just after I took the photo in SMNP. I was getting too close and he gave me the back off look, and I did. I'm not as close as it appears. Was using a big lens on a camera.

I've heard that deer actually kill more humans than bear. I know we had an elderly man attacked and killed in his yard a few years back during the rut. This link backs that up.

https://www.vox.com/2016/9/24/13032272/killer-animals-deer-sharks-bears
 
Deer "attack" more people each year than mountain lions and bears. Every now and then they many to kill a person. Does will sometimes protect fawns and can be very aggressive doing so. Bucks will sometimes attack people, usually, but not always, during the rut.
 
I wanted everyone else opinion because the better half wasn’t too pleased I chased it off or even thought about shooting it. There is no way I’m getting attacked by any animal without defending myself and her.
 
"Get off my yard......leave my food alone...stay away from my does or I'm gonna punch you out!"

(yep, Just like people)
007.JPG
 
Sadly, it's just a matter of time before there is an unfortunate human interaction. Wild animals that lose their fear of humans will cause real problems. Stupid people feeding them in urban setting. It's not the animals fault, but rather the humans that set up the animals to be destroyed or trapped out to new location. Substitute bear for deer here what happens then.
 
Oh, I agree 110%. I don't blame the deer for being 10ft from me the first time and I don't blame the deer for charging us. I blame humans who decided to come rip down hundreds of thousands of acres and build $300-500k homes because they want to be away from the city, but not in the country. The animals have no where to go so they hide in these little pockets of woods but letting me go full speed on a riding mower at you and not moving and then trying to run across the street at me starts to draw the line. I hate watching people feed them because they will eventually become accustom to it and then wont find their own food and eventually either starve or attack a human and then they want to kill it. Its B.S.

To blame them, you have to blame yourself as well if you are living in deer habitat which is pretty much anywhere in the continental US. It isn't just the $300-500K homes. It is every home. The human population in the US continues to grown and housing is needed to support it. That takes away habitat, plain and simple, regardless of whether it is a $40K home or $500K home.
 
To blame them, you have to blame yourself as well if you are living in deer habitat which is pretty much anywhere in the continental US. It isn't just the $300-500K homes. It is every home. The human population in the US continues to grown and housing is needed to support it. That takes away habitat, plain and simple, regardless of whether it is a $40K home or $500K home.
Tons of houses for sale around me but everyone keeps moving to the country and building on farm land and when it becomes too congested they keep moving. 100yrs from now we won’t have any corn fields and woods if we keep this up.
 
Well then, tons of houses are taking up deer habitat, aren't they? People have always lived in the country. In fact, used to be that most of the people in the US lived outside of cities. It wasn't until about 1920 that most of the people in the US were suburban. Prior to that, most of the people in the US lived in the country.

Interesting thing, before every city, it was rural country.

City sprawl is a very real thing, but it isn't just by the more wealthy as you indicate. I see plenty of trailer homes and houses out in the country that are less than 1500 sq ft.
 
There is a farm house next to my wife's family farm that had bucks crash through their sliding glass door more than once. The speculation is they saw their reflection in the glass and charged. That is just one home that we knew about because we knew the people that lived there.

Oh and for the record I didn't run after that 8 pointer I showed in my earlier post. I'd put him somewhere in the vicinity of 150-180lb and I can only imagine what those hooves could do.
 
There was a couple of tame bucks that had been raised by a friend. Both had been bottle fed as fawns and were big pets until the rut kicked in about October. Then he had to separate them and could not go into their pens. By late December they were back to normal. I have seen does attack dogs and bucks when they had fawns, but never a human.
 
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