Bird Calendars

NOTES FROM NATURE

By Jerry Toll

Encounter with Dogs, Does and Deliberations

It was a scene straight out of the African Serengeti. One early morning in March, not long after the ice opened, I went to Nathan's Lake to see if there were any new ducks on the lake. As I drove up to the lake, I could see that a doe was standing in the middle of the lake.

With the doe were two dogs, one a Rottweiler, the other a Newfoundland. They just stood there, the doe with her left front leg bent at the knee. I knew what was going on, but in that instant was helpless to change the course of events.

As I watched, the Rottweiler began circling the doe. When it got to the flank, it attacked the hamstring, trying to cripple and bring the doe down. The doe bellowed in pain. The only sound I had ever heard coming from a deer before was the snort they make when threatened.

I wondered how the Rottweiler knew to go for the hamstring. Was it instinctive or had it brought down deer before? The Newfoundland just watched. Neither dog looked particularly excited or vicious. It was more like curiosity.

It was an old scenario, these three standing in the middle of a shallow pond. I know why the dogs were there, but I don't know why the doe decided to go into the pond. Perhaps the doe was unable to outrun the dogs and saw the pond as a refuge, a way to gain some time.

She may have thought the water was deep and she could get through it faster than the dogs. Or she may have been drinking at the water's edge when surprised by the dogs, and that was her only avenue of escape.

In either case, it was a bad decision because the pond was less than a foot deep in the middle, with a silt bottom.

She was having more problems maneuvering than the dogs.

The owner of the dogs arrived at the scene shortly after I did. He was trying to call the dogs away from the doe. He told me he had just let the dogs out about a half hour ago. During the course of our terse conversation, he said in anger, "I oughta go get my 30-30 and drop both those dogs." I said, I'll leave you to it."

I was angry too. As I left, he was still calling his dogs over to him. I returned later that morning. The doe was gone. There were no signs of what had occurred earlier.

My gut response was one of abhorrence. If not for the intervention of the dog owner, I knew the doe faced a prolonged and painful death. My intellect fought back. This was validation of the predator-prey relationship.

I know that white-tailed deer have experienced a population explosion throughout much of their range. For deer, the arrival of European settlement has meant better habitat, less competition for resources, and a diminished predator list.

Dogs are still wild creatures in certain circumstances. In this situation, substitute Rottweiler for wolf (he certainly seemed to know how to bring down a deer). All dogs are capable of killing. Their predatory instinct is usually held in check by their pack loyalty to their human family's wishes. Take them out of that context and they quickly respond to their genetic predisposition, regardless of hunger.

Besides, only humans die of old age, and even that is a privilege of wealth, either of the individual or of country. It's the natural order of things to die as prey, whether it is by superior force, disease, or some other combination of factors.

We live in a country where fewer and fewer people live in and make their living from the country. (And no, the suburbs don't count.) As a nation, we are disaffected from the land. We prefer to filter our nature experiences through the eyes of Walt Disney, because, well, it's just so much nicer that way. You don't need to touch any icky stuff!

I hope the doe made it. That she will persist through many more Winters and grow fat during Summer. In truth, I think her wounds were too severe. I've been told that deer, when under extreme stress, will just drop dead. Perhaps that is just an urban myth.

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