Here a herd of deer, wandering through a residential neighborhood, encounters a solitary white cat with a colored tail. Who will win this Meeting of the Mammals?
Note that the deer, who are usually prey, are still wary of the cat as a potential predator. But in the end, size wins out.
Meow
We once had a white-tailed doe (Odocoileus virginianus) stomp her feet and snort at a cat in our back yard (this was in rural MN). The cat, being a mama cat, was not impressed and ignored the deer. We thought the doe might have had a fawn nearby as they usually just ignored the cats.
I once was kayaking with my dad & saw a doe and her spotty baby. Deer don’t have great eyesight & the wind was upwind from us but she knew something was up & kept snorting toward her baby, who just ignored her.
I think both species were curious of the other.
Notice that the buck is toward the back of the group. This is fairly common, and deer hunters know to wait for the buck to show himself.
Yeah I noticed that too – shove the doe deers upfront. 🙂
I watched a program about a rancher who spent many hours over several years trying to be accepted into a herd of deer here in Oregon. He succeeded and could come and go with them freely. He found that the group was led by a doe who determined when and where the group went.
This might why the buck is in the back. He’s not the boss. The first doe might be the leader of the pack here.
I saw that documentary as well. It was beautiful. I was amazed when the deer clearly led him into the bush to introduce him to a newborn fawn.
Are you sure? They look like an all male group – the ones at the front are just younger with antlers in velvet if you enlarge the image… I assume the older buck is more experienced & cautious.
…If my identification is correct then I would imagine the males form groups after they are weaned – I am pretty sure other deer do this as well.
The moggie could have had them on the run. The deer were very timid.
I think if the cat had feigned a charge, the deer would have…uh “high-tailed it”.
I agree.
As well as size, the cat was somewhat outnumbered.
We often have deer in our back yard, and, just as seen in the video, on several occasions the deer have shown considerable interest in our cats. This is common with the fawns, rarer with the adults.
As with cows, the deer thus appear to be curious about new creatures. The curiosity of cats is often rewarded by scaring up small prey animals. I would think a prey animal would benefit from being less curious, from avoiding unfamiliar creatures. Any ideas as to why deer (and cows) appear to be curious?
Interesting and lovely filming…
Maybe it’s TOXOPLASMA GONDII returning to the scene of the crime! (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/28/science/parasites-practicing-mind-control.html?_r=1)
Good point!
My male cat Houdini has a crush on a local doe that brings her fawns into our yard when it is plum season. The deer eat the fallen plums. Both the cat and the deer showed a mutual interest in each other and they almost touched noses one day. Several times after that my cat approached the deer family when it showed up and sat ten feet from them watching them eat the plums. The deer were unfazed by their feline fan club.
Just after I moved to the country, my black cat was sleeping under a trailer. He emerged and spotted a deer grazing nearby–his back arched and his tail went into bottle brush mode and he let out this very loud snarl,as to say “don’t f8uck with me!” The deer looked up and went back to grazing. Just hilarious
Does anyone care to play “spot the Butter kitteh”?
Tried and failed!
Is Butter white and off to the right (or am I as hopeless as I am with nightjars?)
You win! He’s hiding in the grass, getting the drop on his quarry. I was waiting for him to spring and freak the deer out, but he never did.
For once!
White smudge, lower right… 🙂
LEAD DOE: OMG, is that a mountain lion? Woooh! Sure is small. Smells weird for a mountain lion, too. Maybe it’s a cub? No. Wonder what it is, then?
CAT: OMG, is that a dog? Cheez-oh-pete, there’s a bunch of them, and they’re the biggest dogs I’ve ever seen! And, they smell funny, too!!!
One starry midnight, my cat, Lucky (who just happened to lie down next to the computer when I started typing this) met a doe, outside, whose fawn was standing very nearby. He kissed her — twice! — nose to nose.
Oh, did I mention is nickname is LoverBoy? He loves the ladies, disregarding species, age, their mates, even their beauty (or lack thereof); he just looooves the ladies.
Funny how he looks just like a Peppy Le-Pew without that white streak, too.
In every cat a lion?
Clearly not so.
Domestic cats are more prone to go after small birds, frogs, mice, chameleons and geckos. No mercy there.
They would not take on a deer, clearly out of their league.
How shall I say: ‘Obvious’?
Size wins out :))… I was quite amused and surprised when found out several cat slapping big dog face videos on YouTube. Why, why the big dogs take it…