Fast as a Deer

[Ron Hardin]

So I was riding along and noticed a deer ahead of me running away. He
was forced to run road-wise by a long pasture fence and I was gaining
on him. At the end of the fence, he turned left and disappeared into
the woods.

He was a fawn but no Bambi, pretty well grown.

Later, returning on the same road, about a mile away, I came upon
another such deer at another pasture, and the same thing happened, I was
gaining on him. This time I slowed and consulted the GPS: he was doing
18.1 mph.

Unlike squirrels (``fast as a squirrel'') deer apparently do not
attempt to escape by turning back at you, though I left open enough
room to allow for the possibility. These just kept straight until
an opportunity to turn away came up.
--
Ron Hardin
[email protected]

On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

 

[Andrew Price]

Ron Hardin wrote
> So I was riding along and noticed a deer ahead of me running away. He
> was forced to run road-wise by a long pasture fence

Had a similar experience with 2 kangaroos bounding alongside a touring bunch
of cyclists on a country tour.

The 'roos seemed to enjoy pacing along side of us, till they came to a cross
fence when they did what they do best and just bounded over it

Eventually; they came to a very high fenced with a high hedge, which have us
the win by a wheel over a paw

But on uninterrupted terrain, I'll bet they could have dropped us.

best, Andrew


"But riding is my special gift, my chiefest, sole delight;
Just ask a wild duck can it swim, a wildcat can it fight...
I'll ride this here two-wheeled concern, right straight away, at sight."
A B 'Banjo' Patterson - "Mulga Bill" 25 July 1896.

 

[Rick Onanian]

On Sat, 03 Jul 2004 11:22:31 GMT, Ron Hardin
<[email protected]> wrote:
>another such deer at another pasture, and the same thing happened, I was
>gaining on him. This time I slowed and consulted the GPS: he was doing
>18.1 mph.

Saw two baby deer in the road today. They ran off into the woods as
soon as I saw them.

>Unlike squirrels (``fast as a squirrel'') deer apparently do not

Clocked a squirrel at ~18 mph today, too. I was doing 20 and slowly
gaining on him.

>attempt to escape by turning back at you, though I left open enough
>room to allow for the possibility. These just kept straight until
>an opportunity to turn away came up.

Deer don't follow a pattern, or think, or have an instinct for which
direction to run, AFAIK; their ONLY instinct/thought/action is to
RUN regardless of where, which is why they run blindly into the
road.
--
Rick Onanian

 

[maxo]

On Sat, 03 Jul 2004 11:22:31 +0000, Ron Hardin wrote:

> These just kept straight until an opportunity to
> turn away came up.

unlike rabbits which for some reason wait until you're almost parallel to
them and dart into the road, they should really have a talk with the deer.