A Note About Our Wildlife

I realize that wildlife mean little to many of my neighbors but how do you hit a deer in a neighborhood where the speed limit is 25 and it’s not even a through street? This fawn had just lost its spots. 

I understand it happens, but when your 14 year old neighbor comes to your house and asks if you can come look at a hurt baby deer in her backyard in the hope that there is something you can do, this is just heartbreaking.  

The Fawn was alert late last night, laying down with its head up and we had hoped that with no outward signs of injury it would survive. Unfortunately it passed away sometime this morning.

Charlotte's Animal Control won't remove dead animals from private property, only if they are on the street so my husband carried the poor baby to the woods and buried it. So now I need to tell my neighbor so he can tell his daughter.

Seriously, our street is only 1 mile long, the difference between 40 and 20 mph is 45 seconds if you had to drive the entire length of course most drive less than 1/2, nothing can be that important.

I'm going to vent a little so either bear with me or just move along. 

First to many kind and thoughtful words posted on NextDoor about the young fawn, thank you. 

Now to the negative Nancys and know it alls: 

I'm not a wildlife expert nor do I have a background in wildlife management or biology. I'm a career banker, not exactly a ringing endorsement of knowing all things nature.  

However, I do know that some people are cruel, some just mean and others are bless their hearts stupid. In the last year I have found a fox shot to death between No. 1 Green and No. 2 tee box. Watched a speeding neighbor mow down a bunny. (I realize they have the decisiveness of squirrels.) Seen geese dead on Rea Road and read on ND about a deer shot with an arrow. I've even had a neighbor who was mixing dog food with antifreeze to kill racoons. The last thing I want is for a young fawn to suffer. So to the ND jerk, no I did not just leave it to suffer in agony. 

Now what I do know about deer is from common sense and observing them in Mecklenburg. Union and York Counties my entire life and from my backyard for nearly three decades. 

Plus, I have family in Maine a place where if someone says "we have a couple of deer hanging out in the front yard" it has a totally different meaning than here in South Charlotte. (Sarcasm)

Deer are social animals and they travel in groups, they have territories and occasilly interact with other deer groups. The fawn that was killed on Monday was one of from a group of two adult females (Does) two yearling females, a set of triplets born late in the spring along with one other fawn born about two weeks later. The fawn that was killed was one of the three pictured.

This group of eight seldom ventures into Raintree at the end of Payton Randolph or much past the No. 1 tee box at TPC Piper Glen or on to No. 4 Fairway which is closer to 485. They spend their days wandering from place to place in big looping circles grazing as they go.

During the summer the group also included two adult males (Bucks) and two yearling males. The older Does tolerate the males during the summer but at some point in early fall the boys are told to hit the road.  

Because they are social animals they tolertarate and perhaps even welcome other deer groups from time to time.  This seems to happen more during the spring when there are youngsters to look after. Yes they take care of each other.

Besides the Bucks who will travel to find mates, these Does, their yearlings and fawn don't stray from Seton House Lane. 

To be certain they are not hit on Rea Road or 485 and then run a mile just to die in my neighbor's backyard. They are also not so hungry that they dart into traffic. In fact they are in fact very predictable. 

While deer may be more active at dusk but they don't just randomly jump out in front of cars.  They do have a habit of trying to "keep up" with the group and I suspect the fawn that was hit was doing just that. 

In our neighborhood they are like golf carts, if one crosses the road in front of your car you can bet there is at least one more to follow.  So far this year there have been no golfers killed by cars on Seton House Lane or Links Drive. (Again Sarcasm)

Deer typically settle down around midnight often laying down in a safe spot in a familiar backyard right under your neighbor's nose.

They eat everything. But their diet changes as do their coats with the season.  Hosta in the spring gives way to Ivy in the summer, Nuts in the fall and your just planted Pansies during the winter.

My neighbors feed the deer. (Do I hear gasps?).

Here's the theory, deer are grazing animals. They eat they move, they eat some more and they move. They have done this in the Carolinas for a thousand years. By placing deer corn at the edge of your yard they consume the corn and move on. They are hard wired to keep moving. Eat the corn, pass on the hosta keep moving. It is part survival skill and part habit.  

Doesn't the corn "attract" the deer?

Yes and no. Yes they love corn, but the deer are coming to your yard anyway. They eat everything except holly, gardenia, magnolias, mountain laurel, false cypress and juniper.  But will strip the bark off of some cypress varieties. They are not deterred by dogs, fences or wind chimes.

As for the madness of hanging fabric softener strips or wrapped bars of soap from trees, using hot pepper sprays, garlic and rotten egg mixtures, ammonia-soaked rags, and bags of hair and/or blood or buckets of urine; seriously who wants to do all that?

So in the alternative just feed them and pray they move on. 

And back to speeding cars in neighborhoods. What the heck? 

Please slow down.

Ellie McIntire