Animal Behavior: Lovesick Buck

In this particularly mild winter in San Antonio the whitetail deer in our neighborhood seem confused.  The deer rut or mating season occurred as usual last fall.  We saw all the activity among the local herd, and then they formed bachelor herds which occurs when there is no competition among the bucks.  This bachelor herd walked through last week.  The new fawns should be showing up soon.

Over the weekend we noticed a couple of bucks looked injured as if they had been fighting which seemed odd at this time of year.

This buck was limping and missing an antler which can occur naturally in the spring or the females could have literally kicked him out.  Either way, he apparently wanted to be hand fed which we do not do.  He did pick through some fresh trimmings in the compost pile.

A few days later this large buck chased a doe through the front yard.  Thinking he had her cornered between houses and against the fence he eagerly awaited her return.  Deer in our area can mate in early spring depending on weather and availability of food but generally it's all at the same time.

 Anticipation....

She had other ideas though and turned around, jumped the fence, and headed for the woods across the creek.

Eventually he tired of waiting and began to search.  DH found this particularly funny, I have no idea why.

 
First the neighbor's back yard.

Then our yard along the south side of the garage.

 Checking the fence carefully where she went over.

Then back to the neighbor's yard again.  Hmmm, where did she go?

Hey there buddy.  What are you looking for?

I'm in our back yard now hoping to catch him jumping over the fence.  It seems he figured out she gave him the slip and he exited the scene by way of the driveway and down the street.




Just another day in the neighborhood.