Welcome to another edition of Marsh Musings. For most of the year, my red (more like orange) hair separates me from the general public. Sure it is easy to find me in a crowd, but sometimes it is nice to just go unnoticed. Right now, oodles of hunters are flocking from all over the United States to hunt pheasant and deer along the Wetlands and Wildlife Scenic Byway, and they come bringing blaze orange. That’s right. Blaze orange. For once, my genetics make me blend in with the hoards of people.

All kidding aside, this time of year creates a lot of great photo opportunities and a chance to see animal behavior up close and personal. At first glance, deer appear to be a rather dumb animal; playing along the side of the road, running in front of or even into cars, and being color blind just to name a few. In all actuality though, deer are very intelligent animals and have many neat adaptations.

Deer have some very neat predator defenses. Fawns, baby deer, are completely odorless for the first few days after birth and tuck their legs, neck, and head against their body for concealment. This is a great adaptation for such a small, defenseless creature since predators are unable to find the odorless animal unless they move. The mother stays close by as well to distract predators away from the fawn. Adults also have a neat sleeping strategy in which they rarely bed in the exact same spot twice, which is believed to avoid predators catching onto their patterns.

Deer also have a complex system of communication, including the use of visual, olfactory, and vocal cues. These cues are incredibly important for both sexes as they enter the rut, the main time of the year when boy deer can think of nothing besides how great the females look. The rut is onset by changes in temperature, moon phases, and barometric pressure. Observing deer during the Rut is one of the neatest opportunities to see nature in its raw form; exciting, exhausting, and also disturbing at times.

Dr. Witt and I are amazed every year at the events we witness. The male deer bicker, size each other up, and last but not least, fight (sometimes to the death) with each other. Bucks see a doe in heat and they have no room in their brain for any other mental processing. Kind of remind you of some other animals you may know? The chase of females ensues after dominance is established and this is when we begin to feel bad for the females. To be frank, we often get worn out just watching the bucks chase the does. Sometimes the females are ready to breed and do so willingly, but most of the time, the does end up getting taken advantage of. The bucks will literally chase the females until they are so tired that they give in to breeding. We have even seen does crawl into dense rose bushes to escape. While sometimes cruel, the rut overall is a very neat, complex phenomenon that we have felt lucky to witness.

It is a shame that the only experiences most people will have with deer are plowing them on the highway with their car. As a wise professor once told me, "There are two types of people. Those that have hit deer and those that will!" We encourage you to hurry out to the Bottoms for a great, insurance-free experience of the deer rut before hormones die down. Until next time!