Ferocious Friday: White-tailed Deer, Odocoileus virginianus

These are pictures of white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus. They were taken by a friend's Cuddeback game cam.

I am not a hunter at all, but deer and duck hunting are huge around here. These pictures don't remind me so much of "bringing home the big one". They remind me more of an event that happend when I was about 10 years old. My brother and I were out by a cornfield next to our house, shucking corn to feed our chickens. We saw a deer about 75 yards away and my brother said, "Hey Henry, look at that pretty eight point buck". We froze so we wouldn't startle it, and watched in amazement as it began walking toward us. When it got about 20-30 yards away and it was still approaching, we realized that something was not right. I began walking back and came to an electric fence and started to step over right as he attacked. This electric fence obviously wasn't the big chain link kind that makes your skin sizzle like you see in the movies. It was just a single small piece of wire about 3 feet high that would give you a good solid jolt when you held onto it. It was the kind of fence a young fella's dad might tell him not to pee on, knowing that would be the next thing he would do as soon as he could, just to see what happens when you pee on an electric fence. Anyway back to the attack, as I was stepping over, he hit me and got me down on the ground. Somehow the fence was between us, so I was simultaneously being gored in my midsection by a buck and repeatedly shocked by an electric fence. Luckily my brother took his bucket of corn and whacked the deer over the back with it. At that point the deer got off me and pinned him down on the ground and pushed him back a few yards. I was able to get up and find safety in a hog trailer. He was able to get up and get away to the house. He went to get his gun as my mom came out with a broom, but by the time the gun was ready the deer was gone. He ended up with just a few scrapes, and thats about all I had too except for an additional minor 2-3 cm wound on my abdomen from the antlers. I still have a scar to show from that one. We later found out that the deer was a semi-tame captive of some neighbors who lived a few miles away that had gotten loose. It made sense that he would be fighting with humans during rut, with whom he was more familiar, rather than his own kind.

You can see more animal pictures and stories at Modulator's Friday Ark