Our Beautiful Rocky Mountains, with bonus SNOW!
Here's the story of how I spent my morning. I wrestled a wild, live deer! (**possible hyperbole or exaggeration there...)
A couple days ago, I saw a Colorado Dept of Wildlife truck pulled off the road near my hut. I stopped to offer the obligatory "Everything ok?" to the dude in the truck, and we ended up chatting. The conversation was ending when Ranger dude(Brad) asked me "...so, can we, uh, trap a deer on your land?". I was like "um, I know you're the lawman, but, uh, I'm pretty sure it's illegal to trap deer, even for you." Brad explained to me that they do studies with deer, to document their movements, when/if they cross the highway, and stuff like that. They trap it, attach a radio collar, and set it free. No harm comes to my friends, the deer. That sounded reasonable, so I gave my permission...
They showed up the next afternoon, and set up a deer trap. It is a steel frame, encased in a rope mesh. They baited the trap with hay and an apple mixture, laying it on heavy at the far end of the trap. When the deerie goes in to eat, it ends up hitting a trip wire which drops the trap door. In the pics, you can see the wire that shuts the door-it's the diagonal wire running against the rope mesh. And shazam, you got a yourself a trapped deer.
your basic deer trap
Mmm. Hay & apple slop.
The first afternoon/evening, they caught one. But alas, it was a fawn. They can't collar a fawn, as it grows too fast, and the collar would become too tight. They just showed up, said, 'shit, it's a fawn', walked over and raised the door...and Bambi ran off to rejoin it's momma & sibling who were waiting & watching from a distance. I find it endearing(!!) that after the fawn was trapped, its momma & sibling spent the night next to the trap, staying next to the family member in a trap. Cute, huh? Also, the fawn was bouncing off the 'walls' of the trap as humans approached. It was a lil sad to see, BUT, there was also a quality of a kid bouncing on a trampoline about it. The fawn wasn't hurt in any way by it. I watched it run away, back to its Mommy...
There's a fawn in a trap in this picture--can you see it?
That was yesterday morning. They then re-baited the trap. I wasn't here later, but apparently they came by about 5pm yeserday, and found another deer in the trap. Again, not a 'good trapping', as it was a buck. A BUCK! Wish I had seen that... At any rate, they let that one go too, again re-baiting the trap. Sometime overnight last night, they caught a third deer, and this time it was a winner. They can't collar a buck because during the rut, a buck's neck swells-akin to a cat floofing up its tail to look bigger(and in this case, to look more studly, more buck-ish).
They showed up this morning, and that is when the pics were taken. They approached the trap, and the deer was desperately trying to escape. Very quickly, they just grabbed the deer's neck fur, and put a blindfold on it. That took literally 5 seconds, maybe less. It immediately calmed down. Then dude entered the trap, and hobbled the deer's legs. Hobbled means 'wrapping a strap around its legs', not hurting or harming it in any way. From that point on, the deer was as docile as a napping puppy...
Ms. Deer gets The Bum's Rush.
Hey, C'mere--I've got a hat for you...
Quick work by my State employees
The female DPW employee spoke to the deer quietly and seemed to calm it. A deer whisperer?
Shhh, be quiet lil deer!
Aww
SMOOCH! I love you, Deerie!
Now, ...that's a calm deer.
Drawing blood from my new friend
That guy on the left? Pretty handsome fella, ain't he? :)
They applied the radio collar(you can see the dude sizing the white collar in the upper right corner of the one picture), and decided since she was so calm, they would also draw blood for testing. The whole time, a dude was leaning on the deer, who, despite weighing only ~130 lbs, could have kicked all our asses at once(the deer, not the dude). I was able to pet the deer, touching her ears & muzzle--she didn't flinch. Actually, she didn't make a sound the entire time, nor was she even breathing hard. I'm sure her heart was pounding though... I even gave her toes a lil 'gitchy-gitchy-goo'! :) 'Deer toes' are definitely not kissable like your infant nieces are. They are hard(hey, it's a hoof!) and sharp. If a deer were to kick you, not only would it hurt like a SOB, but you'd more than likely have a big laceration. Deer have 2 'toes', and they move independently of each other. It was very cool to touch them... When stroking her torso, I could feel both her coats. The deer's outer coat was quite rough & bristle-y. But her undercoat? As soft as any animal fur you've ever felt.
After attaching the radio collar and drawing blood(and taking a pic of me & my new deer friend), they simply removed the hobbles from her legs, took off her blindfold, and stood back. Momma deer immediately stood up, took 2 staggery steps, shook her head, and away she went. She ran over to her 2 babies who were watching from about 500 feet away. The family was together again & they then ambled away into the trees.
I found this whole thing facinating. And now I have something to watch for until next Fall--my deer friend who wears a collar. You may be wondering--I was, and I asked--the collar is programmed to release itself next November. It will then send a signal that they will use to find the collar, after which they will take the collar and download an hour-by-hour GPS accounting of the deer's movements from now until next November. The collar costs about $1700.00, and sends no signal until it releases. For $5000.00/collar, they can apply one that sends out real-time signals, allowing a step-by-step tracking. I also asked...and learned she was most likely 3 years old. I've seen her twins-heck they were watching us the whole time. Odds the doe you're looking at is pregnant? Between 95 & 99%.
Pretty cool, huh?
How about a happy ending?
Run free, Momma!
To reiterate, no deer were harmed today. I love the wildlife near my hut, and wouldn't allow them to be harmed for research. Also, this is definitely NOT a hunting diary. I don't hunt, but I'm ok with it. YMMV. I do eat meat though. I don't see how it is better to eat a captively raised critter than a wild one. I have no idea where a hamburger came from. I would know where a verison roast came from if I 'harvested' it. All things being equal, I'd rather know my meat was truly macrobiotic(enduring the same enviromental stressors as I did during it's life). Or "local", as they say...
Also, you all know I am a woozle owner who loves his dogs. I am so proud of them! They were completely responsive to my verbal command of "no, leave it!" as I kept them away from the deer in the trap when they went out to pee... But, OH! did they ever want to go over & check out the caged deer in their yard!
I hope you enjoyed this diary. I had a great time this morning--an experience I will always remember.