Northern Kentucky Project: Wildlife Encounter - White-tailed Deer

This quick capture was somewhat of a jumpy surpise. I was walking in for my evening shift in the forest and kicked up this baby deer fawn, only a few weeks old by now likely. It stood about 2’ high at the shoulder and was laying down only 10’ from my path when it jumped. Since these animals are getting somewhat used to my presence on this property now that I‘ve been here so long, they don’t seem to be so afraid anymore. After it realized I wasn’t chasing it this fawn just stopped and slowly turned to look at me. Gave me this beautiful chance to video it at only 30’ away.

White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) was at one point, not to far back in our history, so rare to see because it was nearly hunter to extinction that it would make front page news. Now they are so abundant because of the hunting regulations, lack of hunting participation, and lack of wolves as an apex predator, that we have to many in some areas.

Coyote (Canis latrans) have somewhat filled in the role of predator, mostly praying in fawns and sickly deer, but cannot take the sheer weight of a full adult deer alone. To a large degree. Having regulated hunting is important to keeping the deer population somewhat stable and preventing them from entirely decimating the understory of the surrounding forests. Hunting is not evil, it is a necessary management tool, and a great way to help feed the homeless in areas where hunters participate in donation based food banks.