On a ride at dusk today I had a strange encounter.I passed 2 doe and their young crossing the road.When they spotted me they scattered into the woods.Couple of minutes later 3 bucks were coming out of the woods trying to cross.They stopped looked at me and slowly returned to the forest.I go around a curve and a much larger buck is standing in the middle of the road.He isn't moving.Staring right at me.He lowers his head.WHAT! Now I'm thinking this crazy buck is going to charge me.I yelled at him trying to sound like Fonzi but it came out like a little girls voice.Ive been loosing my voice the past few days.It worked and he retreated very slowly.

We have a lot of deer for a populated area.There is no hunting around here.The deer seem to be getting used to life near people and cars.

Those are beautiful animals, I saw a doe and two spotted fawns crossing the road on Saturday's ride. When I got up close to them they were gone, most riki-tik, into the woods. Our rural area is laoded with them, it was once a hunting lease, now its farms and some residences. Fairly remote and lots of flora/mast to munch on, as well as the farm crops now.

Bill

More people are killed by whitetail deer every year than any other wild animal. (OK, usually it's because the hunter thought the deer was dead and tried to pick it up...) During the rutting season, deer want to fight.They want to fight, but a younger deer might want to fight anything it can find, even people, especially if it does not recognize people as a threat.

See them often when I ride. Hate them in general, they destroy the landscaping, cause traffic accidents, and here, also "no hunting" suburbs, they are breeding out of control like geese.

I look on them as large rodents. They prevent me from growing legumes and other crops in my garden. Driving risk as well in my very rural area. I am not a hunter but I cheer those who do. Including the equally troublesome coyotes who prey on fawn. Bambi? Thanks for nothing, Walt Disney.

Unfortunately I had to fish out a young deer from the pool last week about 25lbs--he may have thought the cover was solid?
And yes the back yard is fenced to almost 7 feet--eery and sad!
Wondering if the drought has something to do with it as well?

Beautiful but destructive, true. In the winter they eat the needles off the pine trees, killing all the lower branches. My arborvitae all look like bottle brushes. I've planted saplings - maple, oak, and hickory - that they've in turn eaten all the way to the ground. I've had some success keeping them out of my garden, as long as it's right up against the house and only has tomatoes and zucchini. Why can't they eat my fire bushes?

My biggest threat on local trails is not humans but deer. Throw in a score of rabbits or two. So far, they have not found their way up our ravine (except one scoundrel).

Maybe because they are non-native and the deer don't like them? It's a secondary problem of deer management. People move to deer country, plant nice shrubs, the deer hear the dinner bell and eat them. Folks get pissed at deer, so they go out and get ornimentals deer don't like. The problem is that many of those plant are non-native and invasive. So they spread and crowd out the native plants. My wife was anti-hunting until she got involved in a non-native plant radication group. She still doesn't like it, but see the need to lower the population.

I see many deer within 6 feet of me or so on the bike ride to work on a reular basis. My ride is through and abuts a militry firing range for about 4 miles, deer like it here, there plenty of woods etc. We always say deer are destructive but no more so then us humans think of all the paved parking lots and empty buildings that aren't being used because we have to have the latest and greatest. Don't get me wrong I am not a PETA persaon and I spend many months hunting mostly with the bow, all the meat is eaten mostly by me. I look for smaller wooded areas where the litlle buggers hang out, so if a municipality really wants to control them there are other ways than guns to thin the heard in small areas.. They are even allowing hunting in Blue Hills reservation which abuts Boston for three days this year to control the heard.

Ok now that I am off my soap box I can not believe the number of videos I have seen with deer hitting cyclists. The one where the biker is going downhill is downright scary. I always keep my eyes open when I see a doe or two or three or four run in front of me because I know there is a buck in trail right behind them looking for ..... This is the most dangerous time of year for collisions as they are in the rut and only one thing contols their thoughts anything between the doe and them they do not see.

Squirels, rabbits and chipmunks are the most dangerous to me as they are fast and harder to pick out.

Yup. Totaled out my Honda Element last month. Cost me $1,000. I still like deer - provided they are properly cooked.

Makes for good eatin'!

Deer of course, if they could post here, would see humans as a serious threat to the environment and public health, what with all those roadways and rediculous motor vehicles moving at unholy speeds endangering all woodland creatures.

Long, long ago, I worked for my uncle who was a building contractor. We arrived once at a new job site and soon heard an odd noise coming from the woods. We ventured into those woods a mere 50 feet and found a fawn, not more than one week old. I surmise the mom deceided to have her baby way to close to the road and when the masons arrived to build the foundation, due to the activity and noise, she felt compelled to abandon her baby. I took that fawn home, sitting on my lap in the truck, and presented it to my niece who lived on an apple farm. That fawn grew to be fine looking deer with very little fear of humans. It is one of the most charming things in the world for a so called wild animal to walk up and greet you. There are plenty of deer about and also plenty of humans.

In the suburbs surrounding my small city (the locals call the area rural, but if the residents are commuting to the city, then it's a suburb in my book), the deer and turkeys are plentiful. Once I get about twenty miles out, they become somewhat sparse, but are replaced by other wildlife (elk, cougar, bobcat, rabbits, bear). Needless to say, I never descend at high speeds and always scan the foliage for company.

Hit a doe with my car one dark evening last week - she charged across the road out of nowhere. I stopped to check her condition (from a distance) but thankfully, she got up and kept running. I can't imagine how dangerous a deer/bicycle accident would be for the bike rider.

Like others on this thread, I'm in east central NJ (Monmouth County) and we're overrun with deer, and this time of year is especially active.

Honda Civic - about $75 for do-it-myself repairs (headlamp and bulb) - other damage not worth worrying about for an 11-year old car.

You're luck you didn't go to jail for that. Does routinely leave their fawns behind while they graze, relying on the fawn's camouflage and lack of scent to protect it. Mama was probably watching from afar as you stole her baby.

+1. It's not like this earth was a mess before man came on the scene and started imposing his will. "Forest management" is a term I always find amusing. How did those darn forests get to grow so vast without our management?

Right or wrong, deer are a real nuisance in our small'ish town. I see them in our yard a couple times per day (I've seen as many as 8 at one time). My wife has a couple of flower beds and, despite constant spraying with deer repellent, sometimes we go out in the morning and a bed will be decimated. They are close to being domesticated. I can routinely get within 20 feet of one (or more) before they move away (even when they have young ones around). My 60 pound dog pays no attention to them any more as they are kind of like neighborhood fixtures. And they are not afraid of him either.

They can get pretty irritating. Fields and woods abound in the area. I'm guessing that they stick around because of all the gardens inside the town.

dave

Not enough of them to be a serious problem in my area - magnificent animals. It wouldn't take too much of an increase in the population before I'd start hating on them too though.

+1, beat me to it.

no deer here to fear

I rode by eight or ten on the commute this morning, spread out over a few miles. I always see more after a good rain, maybe because they move to higher ground or perhaps there's just fewer humans about. About a third of these didn't bother to trot off, gazing at me from the side of the path as I rode by.

Almost crashed Into the back end of a large Doe once, She dropped a smelly mess and sprinted away,,I missed the mess

They are called, 'Wild Life',, I leave them alone but Love them from a distance

An acquaintance that rides up im DScotts neck of the woods had an unfortunate crossing of the paths with a mule deer a few years ago.

The outcome was a fractured pelvis, some broken ribs and at least one broken limb. The deer fared even worse.

The guy has a new handle.

Deerslayer.