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Comment by comrade1234 | Hacker News Reader

Just a random WI deer story. I have a few but here’s one.

I was driving on a two-lane highway and saw a deer up ahead on the side of the road so I started slowing down. The deer saw me, panicked and ran into the brush/woods, then changed direction and ran out and back toward the highway. I kept slowing. It changed direction and ran back toward the woods, changed direction again and ran back toward the highway. By now I was at a full stop and parallel to the deer. It ran head first into the side of my truck, fell down, got up and sort of stumbled back into the woods…

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During the rut, I've seen muleys here in Montana act absolutely bonkers. I once saw a young but large buck darting in and out of traffic, playing chicken with oncoming 50 mph vehicles, to impress a group of does. He'd run across the road right in front of a car, then pronk around proudly while the does stared at him.

Sounds like human males in rut

If only it were seasonal for us human males.

> while the does stared at him

I hope they stared in horror and not arousal, otherwise these deer will never learn

Was there a game fence preventing it from entering the woods maybe? Not sure how you do in WI but here in Sweden highways are always lined with game fences.

The sad thing is when an animal somehow gets over it, under it, however, and is then trapped on the highway side.

We don't really have game fences like that here. The closest thing is sound barriers along freeways through suburban and urban areas which occasionally trap animals, but even then there's usually enough room along the side of the road a spooked animal won't feel the need to run back towards the road after fleeing it.

There are two classes of highways in WI. Large, divided, 4+ lane highyways which always have game fences, and two lane 'county highways' which do not have fences. Parent is referring to the latter.

The game fences that do exist aren't really tall enough for deer, maybe 2m tall at best so deer are constantly jumping them. I've always wondered why they aren't taller - I suspect they are more for escaped cows and horses than for deer.

This is common, deer are incredibly stupid. For those postulating the existence of a fence, no. They do this when there is no fence, both at night and also in broad daylight when there are no headlights to dazzle them either.

My guess: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronic_wasting_disease

And based on the USGS map, it is very common in WI.

Eh, deer are just very stupid and indecisive when there are headlights. That’s why “shining” while hunting is illegal. There’s a chance that it had CWD but given my experience with them in Michigan, it’s just as likely to have been a dumb one.

Reindeer under headlights: Oh, I think it’s my time.

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