| Submit your comments on this article | ||
| Home Front: Culture Wars | ||
| Deer: Why Do They Hate Suckers? | ||
| 2006-05-21 | ||
Tammy Emery used to think of deer as sweet and adorable, like Bambi. An encounter with a hard-charging doe changed that. The 31-year-old secretary was among at least seven people threatened or injured by female deer last year on Southern Illinois University's campus — attacks that have prompted the school to wage a safety campaign during this spring's fawning season.
"Before last year, no one really had heard of this sort of thing," says Clay Nielsen, a wildlife ecologist at the university. Nielsen believes different deer were responsible for the three attacks that sent Emery and at least three others to the hospital, mostly with minor injuries. "It wasn't like it was one crazy animal," Nielsen says. But some of the attacks may have been avoided, he thinks, if the victims hadn't committed an absolute no-no: moving in on a fawn to pet it. Now, with fawning season soon to peak — last year's attacks happened June 7-15 — Nielsen and other campus officials are using signs, radio spots, e-mails and fliers about the deer in Thompson Woods. Later this month, Nielsen will lead a seminar titled "Avoiding Deer-Human Encounters of the Third Kind on Campus." The effort also includes a two-year study by Nielsen and other researchers to count the deer, pinpoint how the animals affect the campus' ecosystem and gauge what locals think of them. Nielsen says the study will offer no recommendations on what to do about the deer, leaving that difficult issue for administrators. All of this comes too late for Emery, a secretary in the political science department who still winces when she recounts what happened to her on the June afternoon she took a shortcut through Thompson Woods. Emery heard a rustling and saw "this deer was headed right toward me, full charge." Emery never saw any fawn, only the adult deer with eyes wide. "I could tell it was angry, but I wasn't sure what about," she says. "I know by the time I was in the area she was really mad and going to take it all out on me. I couldn't have run if I tried." In an instant, the deer knocked the woman to the ground and delivered a flurry of kicks. Emery, screaming, curled defensively into a ball as the snorting animal rained blows on her, slicing open one of her ears and leaving her with huge bruises and a hoofprint on her hand. "I thought, `This is crazy, this can't be real. I'm being attacked by a deer,'" she recalls. The deer was scared off by passers-by. Emery has not been back in that stretch of the woods since. While taking a shortcut through the woods this week, Stephanie Eastwood, a biochemistry major, wondered what all the fuss was about, saying deer were the least of her worries. "Deer are docile creatures — they don't just attack," said Eastwood, 26. "I find it amusing to see the animals in the park, but all I've seen here is squirrels and snakes, and snakes bother me more." Nielsen suspects various factors conspired in last year's attacks, including an increase in the deer population and the clearing of trees and windbreaks around the campus' edge. That shrinking habitat has forced the animals into Thompson Woods, which is 20 or so acres with hundreds of yards of paved trails. "It's the result of having a beautiful campus that we have to deal with wildlife," Nielsen says. Emery says she thinks differently deer these days: "When they're mad, they're vicious. They're not the pretty creatures they were to me before." N.B.: "Suckers"==People from Illinois.
| ||
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #19 All campusses should introduce large predators to control the stupid population. What a terrible suggestion. What do you have against the liberal arts faculty? |
| Posted by: DMFD 2006-05-21 19:01 |
| #18 DO, a deer A psychotic-wild-eyed-wanting-to disembowel-you deer... |
| Posted by: The VonTrapp Family 2006-05-21 15:42 |
| #17 ed: All campuses should introduce large predators to control the stupid population. They are called "recruiting sergeants". Sorry, couldn't resist. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-05-21 14:26 |
| #16 As far as the deer goes, you can import red-necks like me to help control the deer. Bow-hunting, by preference. The best way, N guard. |
| Posted by: best way 2006-05-21 12:35 |
| #15 All campusses should introduce large predators to control the stupid population. Is that the deer, or the Students? As far as the deer goes, you can import red-necks like me to help control the deer. Bow-hunting, by preference. As far as the students go, well there's importing lots more alcohol. Maybe they will drink themselves to death, or possibly annoy an armed red-neck like me... |
| Posted by: N guard 2006-05-21 12:33 |
| #14 #6: All campusses should introduce large predators to control the stupid population. Then where would they get more students? |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2006-05-21 12:30 |
| #13 Yeah, Gainesville's the pits. |
| Posted by: 6 2006-05-21 12:19 |
| #12 Which is why I never get within 300 yards of them w/out a high powered rifle, shotgun, or various style of bow......frickin' morons. |
| Posted by: Broadhead6 2006-05-21 11:58 |
| #11 Let's talk cuddly giant water lizards. Your catamounts and angry deer havent killed three in a week have they? |
| Posted by: 6 2006-05-21 11:56 |
| #10 look at the black bear, isn't he cute? You just wanna hug him.... Idiots |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-05-21 11:46 |
| #9 OOOh, child ... look at the wild free lions. SIMBA! See how noble nature is when not being oppressed by the partriarchal technocratic speciesist ... AAAIIIEEEEEEEEEEE |
| Posted by: lotp 2006-05-21 11:16 |
| #8 heh! At least they aren't as stupid as the people in Monterey, CA who have these same conversations about mountain lions. |
| Posted by: 2b 2006-05-21 10:57 |
| #7 please tell me that these colllege students aren't this dumb. They would never survive if they attended U. of GA |
| Posted by: Greamp Elmavinter1163 2006-05-21 10:43 |
| #6 All campusses should introduce large predators to control the stupid population. |
| Posted by: ed 2006-05-21 07:27 |
| #5 Doe! Ummm..... |
| Posted by: Homer 2006-05-21 06:24 |
| #4 Wait until the 100 kgs+ wildboars come into the picture. |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2006-05-21 05:41 |
| #3 The 7mm Rem mag solution, I think. |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2006-05-21 05:35 |
| #2 LOL. *touches forehead to monitor* I sense a high concentration of RFSP who should not be allowed out without a responsible adult chaperon. Especially in the woods where there are real, like, animal things and creepy-crawlies and such like. BTW, these are the Mommy deer - the ones without the sharp pointy things on their heads you saw on Animal Planet. But be afraid. Be very afraid. Stay home. Bolt your doors and windows. Whatever you do, stay away from nature - just watch it on TV. They're coming to get you. BWahahahaha! |
| Posted by: random styling 2006-05-21 02:48 |
| #1 "Deer are docile creatures — they don't just attack," said Eastwood, 26 Bambi kicks ass! |
| Posted by: zazz 2006-05-21 00:30 |