Suburb vs. Deer: 'Tis the season of conflict
The rut emphasizes conflict between motorists and manmade obstacles for wild deer
As the the rut approaches and the weather cools deer will be more mobile and will likely find themselves in trouble with people—be it on the roadways or in our backyards.
The spear tops of a 6-foot high suburban wrought iron fence held a gruesome end for a young white-tailed buck last Sunday in Sand Springs.
Carlos Gomez, Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation game warden for Tulsa County responded to a call about the deer and ultimately dispatched the mortally injured buck after it ran through a gate an into another yard with a low chain-link fence and essentially succumbed to its injuries.
The meat was salvaged for charity, he said.
Fences of all kinds across all landscapes are constant obstacles for deer, which can typically leap over them without issue, even fences that are 6 feet high. A buck that could have scored as one of Oklahoma’s largest was found after season one year dangling over a dry creek with its antlers tangled in a barbed wire fence.
Gomez, Tulsa’s longest-serving game warden, said he typically gets a coupe calls a year that involve tall fences with the decorative spires on top. It’s not a problem unique to Oklahoma. Some communities have banned use of the spire-top fences.
“They can easily jump over it, I don’t know what it is with those that they jump and misjudge or see that open row... but they will sometimes come down on it and spear themselves,” he said.
Gomez said “about half the time” the deer are caught by a rear leg and escape with a serious wound but something that can be survived, he said.
“You can see they don’t feel so good when they first get loose but they can certainly outrun you or me,” he said. “We can’t know if they get better but we try to let them go and do their own thing and hopefully they recover.”
White-tailed deer are incredibly resilient and even without human-created obstacles face injury from predators, natural obstacles and their own fierce mating battles.
In the case last weekend something on the fence appeared to puncture the skin at the base of the chest or upper belly and the weight of the deer essentially pulled its hide off its belly to the rear legs.
Gomez said he told residents they could cut the deer’s skin to let it loose before he arrived, but the buck only went about 60 or 80 yards and stopped to lie down against a neighborhood fence, he said.
“He got up when I arrived but luckily he went into a backyard with a low chain-link fence,” he said. “He didn’t want to jump that fence and I’m sure he could not have made it through the night. He was hurtin’, really hurtin’.”