Deer in the RUT

[Watchman]

Apparently the deer here are in full rut. We have been having at least 3 deer vs car accidents just about every night. The bucks are running crazy and getting killed left and right by vehicles and some of these bucks have been trophys.
What a shame.

What I wanted to know, is ,can yall tell when the rut is in full swing by the number of deer vs. cars accidents ? Here it goes up considerably and then the number taper off after the rut is over.

Here , if someone wants the deer we let them have it. Is that standard procedure everywhere ?

What are your thoughts and comments on this ?

[Deputy Joe]

I work on an Indian Reservation. Only enrolled members of the tribe are allowed to obtain the deer. You should see the people come out of the wood work when a bear gets hit.

[danceswithfools]

Never thought about it before (the rut part) but I have been dodging more deer lately than I normally do. One of guys "tagged" one a few weeks ago, and an ambulance just did the same.

Our Dept. of Wildlife has some type of rule that you can't pick up road kill without a deer tag. What most folks do is tell people about this and then say, "I'm leaving now and what happens to the deer after I'm gone..."

[CinaC]

My uncle is ticked at me because last winter I killed more deer with my car then he did with his gun

[RachelR]

Same thing here Watchman.. In the past week, I have had 4 deer run out in front of my car, two of them caused me to slam on my breaks and the other two weren't such close calls. There is a lot of development going on where I live and it is driving the deer out of their homes.

[PeteBroccolo]

The bad spots around here are near the grain terminals - 1 is just South East, and the other just North West, of the city along our major highway - as well as on the West side of the city by the old psychiatric hospital grounds. The terminals draw a lot of deer due to the spilled grain, and the hospital grounds are a wooded nature preserve.

2 years ago it was EXTREMELY bad, due to the heavy snow cover preventing deer from foraging. They wandered into town, nibbling on trees and would get so confused that they were downtown, running into store-front plate-glass windows.

We used to have to attend the scene of ALL vehicle collisions, even if it was 1 car vs Bambi, now we just tell them to go to insurance. After 2 more hits from semis, Bambi is not much more than paint on the road.

[deputy37]

ha! Brocco, wish we could do that.

We hafta give deer tags, but yes, if you smucked it, you can have it. (pre-tenderized) when people don't want it, if it's *good* meat, we also have contacts at a couple of the local homeless shelters.

Rut is one reason why the numbers are up for us, but hunting season is another. They are driven into hiding during the day, and are really on the move at night. Don't forget moon phases, they move during brightly moonlit nights. It was or is around the Full moon isn't it?

Add 'em all together, Got Venison?

I've had two kamakazi accidents. Everyone made fun of the first one, I was PAST the deer, he dove headfirst into my driver side fender, back by the WHEEL WELL. Doh! NOT in front of me. Everyone said "yah, right..." until TWO OTHER deputies had the same thing happen...

Second was far scarier. Hauling my stallion in the trailer, only 2 miles from home after travelling more than 10 hours already that day, safely. Truck passes--deer dives between truck and trailer. THa-THUD-THUD as I feel the TRAILER go over it. My poor boy back there... I was so close to home I risked waitng to get there to unload to check on him. All the way I had visions of deer parts and splatter everywhere... Not a mark on the trailer or the horse, THANK GOD. I was so very, very worried, my boy is irreplaceable.

DAMN KAMAKAZI DEER!