The Buck Chomps Here

Been particularly busy since returning from the US. Most of my online posting has been here, to the page of our website with the conference I host next week:

http://future-bnci.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=84&Itemid=87

Another reason is that I just haven't outgrown the Munson bear feeding story. It already occupied two blog posts, months ago, and I had ample intervening time to think up something more appropriate. But it still seems like the funniest thing I could write about. Anyway.

I'll move to a totally different topic and report on feeding a buck in Colorado. It was literally my last hour before leaving for the flight. I had found some rotting apples in the street 3 weeks ago, which would not have caught my attention before last year. But, as chronic blog readers know, last year, I realized that apples (even rotting ones) can be transformed into a wonderful and totally illegal deer hand feeding experience. I chased a doe and her fawn around that day but failed to get their attention. Interestingly, deer have very little interest in rolling objects. I tried to first woo the doe by rolling apples at her. It is much harder than playing with dogs. Dogs will eagerly track and follow a ball anywhere. Deer don't pay attention to any rolling object more than 5-10 feet from their heads. After a few tries, I managed to land one right next to her left foreleg, which broke the ice. I did then hand feed her, but had no camera. So all I got later was this:



The timid doe.

So, I was sitting on the deck on my last day of Colorado, and saw a particularly majestic buck go by. Really pretty antlers. So I followed my usual approach algorithm. Turns out it is much easier to roll apples to a precise location on grass, as opposed to a solid dirt road.



Velvet buck approaches. Nice rack!




Trying to figure out whether the camera will shoot him. Well, my friend, that depunds.




Consummation




Post-prandial laugh. I think he liked the dinner theater.



Velvet buck, after first feeding, with Twin Peaks in the background.





(Brief aside - this is a picture from that mountain, Twin Peaks, which I had hiked the previous week.)

After this first feeding, I grabbed my brother to get some third person pictures. I was almost out of apples, so I decicded to try feeding some other miscellaneous fruits. These included a banana, and raspberries and other berries from my hike the last week with my brother:



Steve with wild raspberries we found (and ate) on the Neosho Mine hike.




Wild raspberries and aster flowers, ibid.



Raspberry bush, ibid.



Velvet buck - Second approach



Velvet buck eating an apple



Velvet buck pondering cranberries



Velvet buck rejects cranberries! Good boy.



Velvet buck ponders banana.



Velvet buck tries banana.

Turns out the buck did not go for the banana. Next time, I will try peeling it. You know, next time I forge a punch of pictures on Photoshop and joke about feeding wild deer, which would of course be illegal. And it would introduce a certain hypocrisy for mocking Mrs. Munson and other bear feeders.