The Observation Deck

Anyone else see deer in or around town lately? I have had a number of sightings and near misses recently.

- Saw a large buck on McKinley in a front yard about 2 weeks ago
- Saw another large buck running alongside Clifton near West Clifton about a week ago
- Encountered a deer in the middle of I-90 a couple days ago that I had to swerve around. (luckily it got off safely)

I assume they are coming out of the woods due to lack of food?

Just curious...

Hunters are starting a thing now called "Hunt for the Hungry" which they donate portions of their game to homeless shelters and people in need of food.

I saw a group of four right off of I-90 and the Hilliard exit into Rocky River. Right at that red light, if you look to your right you will see trees lined up with berries. The deer were comfortably picking and eating the berries, not being afraid of traffic at all. That's a pretty busy intersection!

The "hunt" includes all types of game. From fishing to pheasants to deer. This program has been going on for 13 years apparently.

When Michael walks the dog at night he runs into them on Clifton Road about once a week. When we can home last week..there were 3 deer in the front yard of a house on Clifton Road...two houses from Clifton Blvd and near West Clifton. I have also that they live in the backyard of a house on Forest Road.

They don't seem afraid of the dog!!

Rhonda

I was riding my bike to work a couple weeks ago, and on Riverside just south of Hilliard I spotted what I am pretty sure was a coyote, right in the middle of the street. It was about 6:45 AM, and still dark out but the street there was well lit. It scampered back into the scruff west of the street when I was about 10 yards away.

I had been told earlier that coyotes are becoming prevalent up north, and when I got to work I googled “coyotes in Ohioâ€Â￾ and found that in fact they are found throughout the state. I also took a look at some pictures of coyotes. I had never seen one in the wild until the aforementioned encounter.

And Rhonda if you are talking about the three deer that lived for a time in several backyards on Forest (north of Clifton) they have been gone for almost a year. Thankfully....

Tim, they may not be living in our backyards, but we have deer in our yard often - at least once a week. (We live two doors down from Tim).

I didn't realize but we planted lots of cone flowers and lilies which they must like. I started noticing that the flowers were all cut off - then one night - I saw the culprits.

There is a beautiful buck that comes often and two to three does. We have seen them sampling the flowers at night in the other yards as well. I don't know how they get here - but they are here and they look quite healthy (better than my flowers).

I am both thrilled and saddened. They are gorgeous and we quietly watch them in all their glory and elegance in the yard. Even the cats love to watch them. But their habitat must be disappearing quickly if they are reduced to our yard. Maybe they are adapting.

Additionally this year in our yard we have seen possums, skunks, racoons, rabbits and tons of squirrels and chipmunks. Additionally in Clifton Park we have seen red fox. None of our friends outside of Lakewood believe the amount of wildlife we have. And of course our penguin with the Hawk disguise.

Tim,
The Haber's and the Norton's have had deer in their backyard all spring and summer. Just down the street from you.

Rhonda

On Veterans Day, Dad and I were awaiting the commencement of the beautiful ceremonies at the Flag Island in Lakewood Park when, bold as all getout, this handsome red fox calmly walked down the road in front of the Womens' Pavilion. He was not at all in a hurry, nor was he in the least afraid of the astonished humans on both sides of the road watching as he casually passed in review between us!

When he neared the Eastern end of the park, a squirrel caught his attention, but escaped up a tree before he could have breakfast.

Yes, I had my camera, and I absolutely forgot that I did.

He was beautiful.

Lynn,

I don't know that the habitat is disappearing in the case of deer in our neck. I think it is more likely overpopulation. Same with the other animals. It is interesting to see the chaos of the wild encroaching on the city. Maybe we'll be okay once everything gets in balance and the predators finally show up.

You may be right Ryan - but I am finding this experiment very interesting. The "wild animals" seem to be adapting pretty well. As Rhonda pointed out - the deer aren't bothered by her dog - or by our cats. They seem to have found a nice food supply of flowers in our neigborhood.

The other animals have found ways of adapting as well as they seem to be prospering and I see little evidence of an increase in dead animals along the streets.

Lynn,

The deer might not seem affected by the neighborhood dog; however, our breeder's list just finished a discussion related to 'stock-killing' dogs and I would imagine that our canine friends they are not going to discriminate between sheep and deer.

Those far wiser than I impressed upon all of us the fact that the predatory instinct is ingrained in all canids. One particularly sad story involved a golden and a lab that decimated a friend's small flock she kept for herding (six head killed out of about ten) while she and her BSD looked helplessly on. (She was brave enough to go out and bring her dog in who was try to guard his flock so as not to have him killed as well - imagine!)

The point all of the breeders/trainers made was dogs are predators and sheep/deer/rabbits/etc are prey. Knowing this, I would caution all dog owners to be very careful when it comes to dog/deer interactions. Providing the dog with the thrill of the chase will only reinforce his/her desire and increase the risk of getting a swift kick to the head of s/he is not careful!!!!

Always,
Charyn

Charyn,

great point. People have to remember that ALL animals, even domesticated animals, are still animals. They have a certain instinct of the "wild" and they really cannot be predicted. People forget that at the zoo as well, they think that animals since they are caged and taken care of they are human friendly.

Every species has that instinct to survive. Survival of the fittest.

I haven't seen any deer in my neighborhood lately, but I know we have a resident fox. My yard was usually the hangout for rabbits, but this summer I did not have to put a fence around my vegetable garden thanks to the fox! We would hear it cry or shriek in the early dawn hours. It is the scariest shriek and I didn't know what it was the first time I heard it. I have seen it on several occasions, usually between 4 and 6:00am. It looks gray in color to me, but my neighbor saw a red fox with 4 young. Has anyone else seen it? We live on Homewood.

Transmissible spongiform encephalopathy is on the way to a deer near you. There have been cases in near by states. It is like mad cow disease. It is caused by prions. While is is not a huge problem now, it could by in the near future. If it turns out to be like the bovine spongiform, humans could get the disease by consuming the meat.

Joe -

While I understand how cows and other ruminants that are grown for food can be afflicted with prion related spongiform diseases as a result of their diet, I was under the impression that they were not transmissible under any circumstances other than ingestion - which would be an unlikely situation for wild creatures such as deer, who will die of starvation before becoming cannibalistic.

Also, I would caveat that prions are the leading hypothesis related to the cause of such diseases and that it is still an area of great study and debate within the scientific community. While I favor this particular hypothesis - there is still much research to be done on both cause and transmission.

Charyn

I have heard that deer have become infected by eating grass. How does the grass become infected? My guess would be hazardous waste. The disease has been seen in Wisconsin, and some western states.
I did however see a deer on the side of the Shoreway near Edgewater last week.