Trio
Max at the lick
Spring has finally arrived and the snow has melted enough for us to get into the enclosure and start raking up the winter's hay to make way for grass. After several hours, we looked at the mound of raked hay and found these three making themselves at home.
It's been a long wicked winter but the herd is doing well and enjoying new mineral licks which we introduced this week to help prepare the bucks for antler growth. Thanks to everyone who has donated funds to make the purchase of such licks possible. Special thanks to Annie who donated 50 pounds of carrots on the occasion of her birthday on March 22, 2008.
We are anxiously waiting for the antlers to start falling but nothing so far. All antlers are still attached! Last year, Gulliver was first losing his on April 8, 2007. We'll keep you posted.
Recently we received a telephone call from Laura F. in Fredericksburg, Texas (near Austin) who has a 350 acre ranch and has rescued several fallow deer fawns being auctioned. Apparently the "business" of canned hunting has fallen on hard times for economic reasons and she predicts that more operators will be selling unwanted deer in the months to come with little regard to the fate or welfare of these animals. If the fallow deer escape or are released to the wild, they can be hunted all year round without license as they are considered "exotics" in Texas.
Like us, she has fallen in love with fallow deer after having experience hand raising orphaned white tail deer fawns.
If you are in the USA and know of fallow deer in need of a permanent, safe sanctuary, please get in touch with us via comment to this entry we will connect you to Laura.
One of the greatest pleasures in this project is the opportunity to meet compassionate and interesting folk like Laura and we look forward to exchanging visits in the future.
Janet Drew and her husband, Ron Heidebrecht, visited the Reserve on Tuesday after yoga class and Janet has sent us this great picture of KoKo enjoying a tasty bit of apple. All the deer were looking a bit bedraggled, damp from foggy, wet winter air, but KoKo managed to convey his satisfaction with fresh hay and crisp apples. Thanks, Janet, great photo.
Mike, George and Spike
Moki on the right with his left ear now healed
We learn so much from these deer about being present in the here and now. As we drove to the Reserve today, we were complaining about the length of the winter, more snow, endless cold, etc. etc.
We started down the hill and saw these sights. Thirteen deer hanging out, together, content, chewing their cud, enjoying rest and soft hay. Just the perfect way to spend a January afternoon in the country.
When people visit the Reserve, they always express surprise that we can identify the individual deer. Aside from KoKo who is easy to recognize given his chocolate colour, at first sight the rest of the deer look very alike.
Having worked with the bucks for over 19 months, we know that each one is quite different and unique in both appearance and personality.
Here's how we tell them apart.
Max, the leader, is a large deer with one of the largest sets of antlers and a golden colour especially on his head and back of neck. He often stands in the middle of the herd, but never gets challenged by other bucks. (A challenge is when a deer lowers his head and antlers and moves towards another in a determined way. Sometimes the deer will tilt his head and show one eye to the other deer. )
Dandy, is usually the second in command. He is probably the largest deer in body size but his antlers don't have the wide palmation of the other large deer. He is very calm.
Mike is next in herd hierarchy but sometimes he vies with Dandy to gain status to second. He looks quite a bit like Max and has large antlers. However, his right brow antler is bent over his right eye in an odd way caused by a collision with a barricade when the deer were being moved to Florida from Scotland Road in May last year. Mike is very social towards people. We hope his antlers return to normal this year.
Gulliver is another large deer with the largest palmation of antlers. He seems to be the big brother of Moki (one of our youngest and smallest) who is a constant companion. Gulliver will often let Moki "play fight/challenge" with him but never exerts the full power he could if the fight were for real. Gulliver likes to chase smaller deer at feeding time, doing his best to get all the food for himself, but he never challenges a deer that is larger than himself.
Murph is a large deer with exceptionally long antlers with good palmation and many spellers (or branches). He has a dark coat, but not quite as dark as KoKo. He is very independent and spends time away from the herd on his own. He is not that interested in people...can take or leave 'em.
Bash is a large light-coloured deer with large antlers that have many spellers and very straight brow antlers. He, too, is somewhat independent and will leave the herd to go on his own. He likes to bully Buddy who is also light-coloured. Bash used to be very frightened of people, but he is becoming very social these days.
Ty has a compact body, a muddy brown colour and very wide palmated antlers with many spellers. Like Bash, he was very fearful of people when we first started working with the herd, now he doesn't seem too worried by us. He never challenges large deer for food or water, but bullies all the other deer the same size or smaller than him.
Buddy is a medium-sized light coloured deer. His brow antlers turn inward instead of straight ahead which gives him a slightly cock-eyed, cute appearance. His personality is carefree and he's very curious about people and what they are doing whether it be building a shelter, digging or hauling water. He will run away from food to get a good view of human beings at work.
EGee is a medium-sized deer with shorter palmated antlers, few spellers and long straight brow antlers. He has a dark brown winter coat with a splash of white on his right side where he was injured last winter. He is very social and calm and only occasionally will he bully George or KoKo at feeding time to get in the best position.
George looks like the other medium-sized deer in appearance except for his antlers this year which have little or no palmation. Our theory is that this odd antler formation was caused by the anti-inflammatory medication he was given last winter after suffering a "shoulder" injury. We hope that his antlers return to normal this year. George is definitely the most social of the deer and he can be a nuisance if you are working inside the fence as he has no fear of people and will invade human space quite easily.
KoKo is our most recognizable deer because he is very dark in colour and even in summer he has very faint "spots" on his chocolate-coloured back. He has a compact, you might say round body and he is very social and calm. He is the one most likely to be hanging out in the shelter of the woods rather than the person-made shelter attached to the barn. He seems to like to hang out with Ty or Buddy.
Moki is one of our youngest at 3 years of age. His antlers are palmated but smaller than all the other deer (except for Spike). His right brow antler bends to the right and this winter he lost the top of his left ear as a result of a tussle with Spike towards the end of the rut.
Spike is the other 3 year old with antlers similar to those of Moki. He is the only deer in our herd with a brown tail which makes him a "menil" fallow deer. Spike is social and curious and likes to hang out with George and fight with Moki.
The first to cast off his antlers, oh so 2007, was Gulliver. This was at about 10 or 11am this morning and we are happy to report that we have found both. They are wider and about 2 or 3 inches longer than last year, when Gulliver also won the antler sweepstakes and dropped those first on April 8.
