Black Fawn

Black Fawn (after clicking this link, scroll down to see photos)

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Some strange and wacky whitetail deer behavior

By Len Lisenbee, outdoors columnist, Messenger Post, link to original post

Whitetail deer are one of the most widespread critters in North America. According to once-reliable sources, they are surpassed only by the black bear. I say once reliable because, during the past week, I have learned a bunch of new and incredible information about this species.

For instance, did you know that whitetails will eat birds? I didn’t either until I received a video showing a doe chasing an injured songbird. I believe it was an eastern phoebe, but don’t quote me on that one. Regardless, the deer managed to corner it, then grabbed it with its mouth, and proceeded to eat it, on the spot, feathers and all. Yuck!

Of course I immediately suspected someone with too much time on their hands doing a little creative photo-shopping with that video. But no, it was a real incident, witnessed by at least three people.

I have witnessed a lot of strange deer activity throughout my career. When a person is tucked into a nice ground-blind or handy tree in the pre-dawn or dusk hours waiting on scoundrels to show up and do their deeds, you get to witness a lot of wildlife activity, and some of it can only be described as strange.

For example, did you know that whitetail bucks urinate two different ways? Most of the time they assume a “four-feet on the ground” position, not unlike a male horse, and just let it go. But I have also observed them lifting their hind leg and peeing like a dog. Since just about all of my deer urination observations took place in the fall months, I have to assume that the rut may have influenced the leg-lifting activity. But at the same time, I have to chalk it up to strange behavior.

A lot of hunters have wondered how, when a deer has its head down and is actually feeding, it can also spot the slightest movement of a person trying to get closer before taking a shot? The answer is that they have the ability to focus on both close-in and distant objects at the same time, including everything in-between.

This trait is possible because the deer’s eyes are set high and wide on its head, giving it better than 300 degrees of vision. It comes in handy by permitting the deer to graze while watching for the approach of any predators, including hunters, doing both at the same time.

There is one more fact about deer, and this one will probably blow your mind. Deer will actually go fishing! They use their hooves to disable fish such as trout. Then they will grab the fish with their mouths, chew it up, and swallow it. And believe it or not, the researchers who observed this activity noted that whitetail deer commonly eat fish up to 14 inches long! Do those guys have too much free time on their hands, or what?

Oh, and a few more tidbit about deer. They are ruminants with a four-chamber stomach, much like cattle. And their digestive tract is around 65 feet long. It normally takes around 36 hours for the grass, twigs, birds or fish they ate to once again appear, this time as those shiny black pellets that hunters are so familiar with.

If you would like to learn more interesting facts about whitetails, noted outdoor writer J. Wayne Fears has written the “Deer Hunter’s Pocket Reference.” It is available at www.protoolindustries.net/fears/index.html. And it is full of interesting and useful information about deer.

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Coyotes in Pennsylvania and New York are mostly coyote-wolf hybrids

By AD CRABLE, Intelligencer Journal, link to original post

Perhaps no critter in Pennsylvania has been the subject of more rumor, notoriety and speculation than the eastern coyote. Remember the stories that persist to this day that the Pennsylvania Game Commission, or insurance companies or foresters secretly released coyotes into the state to trim the deer herd?

Now, the wily predator is being reviled anew as a key figure in the latest brouhaha over how deer are managed in the state. There are those, several Pennsylvania game commissioners among them, who fear coyotes are making a considerable dent in the deer population, already intentionally whacked down by hunters.

The contention is that growing numbers of coyotes are taking deer, especially fawns, and will stymie attempts to let deer rebound. The Game Commission should factor in such considerable predation in determining deer quotas, but is not, according to critics.

A recent study using DNA testing to show that coyotes in Pennsylvania and New York are mostly coyote-wolf hybrids — and thus bigger, more effective hunters than their western coyote counterparts — fuels the fire.

Reports of coyotes surfaced in the 1930s and the first documented coyote was killed in Tioga County in 1940. By 1990, an estimated 1,810 were being trapped and shot. The take rose to 11,652 in 1998 and 23,699 in 2008.

Coyotes have been found in very Pennsylvania County, including Philadelphia. Given their secretive nature, there’s no way of know just how many are in the state.

Matt Lovallo, the Game Commission’s furbearer biologist, has said 50,000 to 60,000 may be a good guess with the population still growing in southwestern and southeastern parts of the state. Ha. Try 200,000 to 250,000 says Randy Santucci, a Pittsburgh businessman who’s launched his own research into the issue.

He says in talking to biologists and reading studies in such other states as West Virginia, South Carolina, Virginia, Maine and Alabama that it’s becoming clear that “the predation factor of these coyotes is a big issue.”

He says, for example, that West Virginia had zero reports of livestock damage from coyotes in 1991. In 2005, there were claims filed for 1,300 calves and 2,300 sheep. He says more people are coming forward in Pennsylvania to relate stories of adult deer being killed by coyotes.

“It shows these animals are pack hunting and killing adult deer,” says Santucci, whose current effort is trying to line up a presentation of his research and message to the state House and Senate game and fisheries committees.

“I think the concern that many people have is we have drawn our deer numbers on public lands down dramatically to less than 5 deer per square mile. If there are lower numbers, and we have fawn predation, there’s more impact.” But Game Commission biologists and a Penn State researcher remain adamant that coyotes are not taking an inordinate number of deer.

“I have no information to suggest that coyote predation is a problem,” says Duane Diefenbach, an adjunct professor of wildlife ecology at Penn State, who performed the seminal study of fawn mortality in Pennsylvania from 2000-2002.

His research involved radio telemetry tracking of more than 200 fawns in the Quehanna Wild Area in northern-tier counties and Penns Valley near State College.

The study found that nearly 70 percent of fawns died within a year in forested settings. About 22 percent was from predation, with about two-thirds of that coming about equally between coyotes and bears.

But, and this is the important part, according to the Game Commission, about 40 percent of antlerless deer killed each year by hunters are fawns.

That’s been monitored for decades. If more coyotes were killing more fawns, that 40 percent rate in the fawn-to-doe ratio would go down. It hasn’t, not in a single wildlife management unit, according to the Game Commission.

“From a management standpoint, we are achieving our management objectives of keeping most Wildlife Management Unit deer population trends stable,” says Jerry Feaser, Game Commission spokesman.

“Those trends are remaining stable with hunting as a primary mortality cause, as well as predation of bears, coyotes, bobcats and vehicles — not to mention poaching.”

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Old fortress yields to sightseers at Seneca Army Depot

Click here for an article about touring Seneca Army Depot.

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Seneca White Deer

Click here for some great photos of the Seneca White Deer:
A Rare Sight To See – The Ghost Deer…A Reflection On Earth Day

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Best of Friends

Click on this YouTube video to watch some unusual friends.

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The Poor Deer

Manitoba Hydro (in Canada) received a  call from a customer saying:
‘My power is out.’  ‘When you come to fix  it be sure to bring a truck with a tall enough  bucket to remove the deer.’

The customer service  rep was prudently trying to gather helpful  information and diagnose the problem. He asked, ‘What deer?’

The customer replied, ‘There is a deer on  top of one of the electric poles on Wilkes Rd. about ½  mile west of the Perimeter.’

The customer service  rep tried desperately to pull herself together  and not laugh in front of the customer. He replied, ‘We will  dispatch someone right away to investigate the  power outage.’  ‘Thank you for the  call!’

Upon completion of the  call, the customer service rep proceeded to  share the funny story with her coworkers in the  office. And  they all had  a good laugh.

Well, low and behold,  the serviceman who repaired the problem, stopped by the  customer service office the following  day. He showed them the  following pictures . …

Sure enough, the  poor deer had been hit by a train

and  landed on  top of

a  distribution feeder pole!    The poor deer.

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What the Dog Dragged Home!

This fawn followed this beagle home —- right through the doggie door —- in the Bittinger, MD. area recently.  The owner came home to find the visitor had made himself right at home.

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