I was listening to NPR on my way to school. It was pitch black and I had fallen into autopilot mode as I made my way along the usual route. I have no recollection of what particular story I was listening to, but I clearly remember the feeling of absolute panic when, ahead of me in the gloom, I saw the shape of a deer that was just standing in the middle of the road. Had there been a car coming in the other direction I would have slammed into the animal. Fortunately, that didn’t happen.
The particular deer that I swerved to avoid was a female (also known as a doe) and it is quite possible that this behavior was the result of rutting season. She wasn’t in some trance, nor was she attempting to end her own life, but it is highly possible that somewhere nearby, there was a full-grown male (also known as a buck) that was harassing her. The rut is upon us and it is time for drivers to be more vigilant than usual.
The rutting season is a period of heightened excitement in the lives of our local white-tailed deer. This is the time of year when males square off with one another to compete for dominance and the privilege of mating with the females. Sometimes the mere size of a particular buck can be intimidating enough to warn of younger, lesser males, but then there are times when two bucks are so equally matched that they will actually engage in physical combat. Posing and posturing then give way to violent exchanges that can occasionally turn lethal. This is where the antlers come into play.
A male deer will start growing a pair of new antlers in the early spring. At first, a pair of slight bumps appear on the buck’s head and these eventually expand in size as blood vessels deliver the building materials for new bone. Early in their development the antlers are porous and delicate and they are covered with a thin layer of skin known as “velvet.” It is so named because the hair on this skin is extremely short and velvety soft, like the hair of a mouse, or a vole. Bucks have to be extremely careful while their antlers are growing because they can be easily damaged, which might lead to defects that will harm their chance to compete later in the year.
Eventually, the antlers reach the maximum size that they will attain in that particular year and the bone will start to harden up. Once all is ready, the males will do their best to remove the velvet and this is usually achieved by finding a tree and giving it a sound thrashing. The velvet is scraped off, the antlers are “polished,” and the shortening days of autumn trigger the release of hormones that heighten the aggression of the bucks. In a sense, they sort of lose their minds a little bit, becoming focused on the sole endeavor winning the attention of females.
The most impressive example of this single-mindedness that I have ever witnessed occurred on Dec. 27, 2011. I was at the Sachuest Point National Wildlife Refuge in Newport County, Rhode Island, in an end-of-year effort to break a photography record (which I accomplished) and I was standing in the parking lot on an absolutely gorgeous morning. A small group of does were standing in the tall brown grasses nearby and I had stopped to take some photos. Then, out of nowhere, a magnificent buck came charging up the hill. He was doing his absolute best to be noticed and toward this end he was making spectacular bounding jumps, like a show horse. At one point, he seemed to just hang in the air at the top of a marvelous arc.
He was so fixated on the does that I don’t think he noticed me, but there is no hunting at Sachuest Point, so he might have simply dismissed my presence as unimportant. I was able to position myself so that I was directly behind one of the does and you can see the focus of this particular male. His eyes were riveted on the doe and he was delivering his absolute best posing and posturing to woo her. I have no idea if this particular buck had any success that year, but he was very impressive. How could the females resist?
The rutting season starts in early October and is filled with these sorts of interactions. Males put on the best show they can manage and then they start chasing and pestering the females. The females spend a lot of time watching the males and running away from them to see how determined the males are. They stand by and watch the bucks fight and all the while they are sizing up the quality of the local males to determine which one will be worthy of siring their offspring. The largest, healthiest and most dominant males are generally the ones that win.
This sort of behavior is fine and dandy in the middle of a wildlife refuge, but it can become quite hazardous in areas where the deer have to cross roads. The movement of distracted deer can be quite perilous when cars are added to the mix. Bucks that are consumed with the desire to mate, and does that are being chased, will sometimes run out into the road without seeming to consider the consequences. This is where the heightened attention of drivers can make the difference between a close call and an absolute disaster. So, please slow down and keep your eyes peeled until the end of December when the rut finally ends and things quiet down.
Bill Danielson has been a professional writer and nature photographer for 28 years. He has worked for the National Park Service, the US Forest Service, the Nature Conservancy and the Massachusetts State Parks and he currently teaches high school biology and physics. For more information visit his website at www.speakingofnature.com, or go to Speaking of Nature on Facebook.