The baby deer in my yard

Very cute!

Hubs went to our lakefront lot this past weekend to cut the grass and check on the dock and discovered a fox den. Mama Fox was keeping a watchful eye on him from the woodline, so he gave the den a wide berth in order to not disturb/scare any kits that might be inside.

Venison veal

That is so sweet! When I lived in Central Jersey we had deer in our yard all the time. They were really cool, but kind of scarey sometimes. A number of times I looked up and realized I was surrounded by a deer gang that were moving in closer to demand food. Jersey deer = thugs.

that is what I like about FWOT --- the replies are fair and balanced

only a couple of responses suggest killing it so far

germanpope said:   that is what I like about FWOT --- the replies are fair and balanced

only a couple of responses suggest killing it so far

I was trying to avoid a redundant comment, I didn't know this was a vote.

Deer liver gravy is delicious.

germanpope said:   that is what I like about FWOT --- the replies are fair and balanced

only a couple of responses suggest killing it so far

It's not hunting season yet (and never is in my yard). It will be a while before the few local mouthbreathers spend their Sunday mornings drinking cheap beer and blasting away at His beautiful creatures

MadAnthony said:   grapegrl said:    he gave the den a wide berth in order to not disturb/scare any kits that might be inside.

I didn't know you could assemble your own fox from a kit.

Oh it's easy. You just need a few bits from a trailer park, a tattooist, a crappy movie director, and a 15 minute timer.

Most dangerous wild animal is the deer. True.

You have a pretty good sized yard!

♀

0AfterRebates said:   I have a bunny that is living under my back porch now. The bunny evicted the stray cat.

Any brand new baby bunnies?

0AfterRebates said:   I have a bunny that is living under my back porch now. The bunny evicted the stray cat.

We have rabbits out the wazoo. Here's my office mate on guard duty...

ppatin said:   ganda said:   
It's not hunting season yet (and never is in my yard). It will be a while before the few local mouthbreathers spend their Sunday mornings drinking cheap beer and blasting away at His beautiful creatures

Mouthbreathers? I'm not into hunting myself, but for millions of years his "His beautiful creatures" have been killed and eaten by other species of "His beautiful creatures." Unfortunately we no longer have natural predators in the suburbs so people have to take over that job (or alternatively we could let the deer keep reproducing until they're overpopulated and start starving.)

Yeah, mouthbreathers. Granted, somewhere, there must be a "sportsman" who sits in his hide reading Nietzsche while waiting for a deer to wander within range, but the ones around here sit and drink cheap beer instead (on Sunday mornings?), then blast away. 100% of the times I've been asked "can I hunt on your land?" it's been a sloped forehead mouthbreather that's asked

If the hunters are hungry, why do they sometimes leave the decapitated corpses behind?
If it's population control, why are they shooting the males?

etc etc etc etc etc

I don't live in the suburbs. Like 98% of the locals here, I'm not a hunter either. The adjacent county has ZERO hunting and it's not like Deer Auschwitz over there, deer naturally regulate their fertility based on food availability, nature's kinda clever like that.

ppatin said:   

ganda said:   deer naturally regulate their fertility based on food availability, nature's kinda clever like that.

I'm rather skeptical of that claim. Got anything to back it up? Nature isn't clever, but it can be very cold-hearted and callous.

Yeah, this is almost certainly not true. Natural instinct is to mate and figure out the details later...
Most places in the USA no longer have natural top predators to keep animals like deer in check.

I know my city periodically has sanctioned hunts and donates the meat to the local homeless shelters simply because the animals become so prolific that they are a hazard to everyone on the road during rutting season.

arch8ngel said:   
I know my city periodically has sanctioned hunts and donates the meat to the local homeless shelters simply because the animals become so prolific that they are a hazard to everyone on the road during rutting season.

They have similar issues in parts of Maryland. What I find really hilarious is when non-vegetarians get all huffy about deer hunting, never mind the fact that the meat from those deer is far more organic and free range than any of the factory farm meat that most Americans eat.

That being said there are some aspects of hunting culture that I find really obnoxious and distasteful (and even the whole "sportsman" thing is kind of stupid, bet the deer doesn't think it's much of a sport) and people who just waste the meat are jackasses.

I think it's pretty well known that whitetails have twins when they are fat and single fawns when they aren't due to the harshness of the winter and available food etc. I understand they absorb the nascent twin if things get lean. So I'm with Ganda on that. OTOH I don't believe they self regulate at all beyond that. Girl deer have kids every year. Deer herds will go absolutely crazy big without hunters and predators. Hunting is going down, predators are coming back. Car insurance is rising in WI and other midwestern states.

arch8ngel said:   Kandykornhead said:   I think it's pretty well known that whitetails have twins when they are fat and single fawns when they aren't due to the harshness of the winter and available food etc. I understand they absorb the nascent twin if things get lean. So I'm with Ganda on that.

I'm not calling it an "old wive's tale" but I can't find any reference to that in what I would consider a legitimate source of data.
If you had a link to something scientific on the subject, I'd be interested to read it. Yeah no I don't. Could be a wives tale.

Kandykornhead said:   I think it's pretty well known that whitetails have twins when they are fat and single fawns when they aren't due to the harshness of the winter and available food etc. I understand they absorb the nascent twin if things get lean. So I'm with Ganda on that. OTOH I don't believe they self regulate at all beyond that. Girl deer have kids every year. Deer herds will go absolutely crazy big without hunters and predators. Hunting is going down, predators are coming back. Car insurance is rising in WI and other midwestern states.

Mr Kandykornhead believing in Old Wive's Tales that have no scientific basis? Whodathunk? (sorry).

It's not unique to deer, heck even we humans exhibit the same natural behavior. It's not a conscious decision by Bob The Buck not to boink Debbie The Doe - no "resources are scarce, I'd better lay off with the boinking" thought required (jeez, even some human catholics haven't figured that one out yet) - but, just as an emaciated human female is less likely to successfully carry a healthy offspring to term, the same is true for deer. Leans times = lower fertility. It's self regulating. What WE think is too many deer might be very different from what DEER consider too many deer though

If car insurance costs are the concern we should station "sportsmen" at the side of freeways and let them blast away at people who text and drive. Around here the spike in vehicular crashes with deer happen during hunting season, which is AFTER rutting (although they do overlap) - hardly surprising that the remaining deer are skittish after Debbie The Doe just died of a gaping chest wound in front of them. Hunting makes insurance costs go UP.

One of the aforementioned foxes is hanging around my office window this morning.

Eagle on the lawn up next, when it keeps still enough.