D'OH! AN ANGRY DEER
A doe's unprovoked assaults on three passersby at SIU have left a campus on edge--and experts scratching their heads
By Bob Secter and James Janega
Tribune staff reporters
Published May 26, 2006
CARBONDALE -- Access to the woody Campus Lake area on Thursday was blocked with yellow crime-scene tape and big signs that explained the peril that lurked within: "Caution, Deer Attacks," they read.
It was not a prank. Here on the campus of Southern Illinois University, Bambi's mom has been going postal.
Three times on Tuesday, a single white-tailed doe launched unprovoked attacks on passersby, including a campus police officer. She charged her victims repeatedly, reared on her hind legs and slashed them with her sharp front hooves in a maneuver called the "beat down," usually reserved for predators like wolves or coyotes.
Two of the victims needed stitches and one suffered a sprained wrist.
Last June, there were nine such incidents at different spots around campus, sending at least four people to the hospital. A graduate student who suffered a broken clavicle in last year's attacks sued the university recently, seeking more than $50,000 in damages.
SIU wildlife ecologist Clay Nielsen, who on Thursday dispensed safety tips for humans at a campus seminar titled "Avoiding Deer-Human Encounters of the Third Kind," thinks as many as three does may be to blame in attacks this year and last.
With an estimated 30 million deer in North America, there are hundreds of thousands of deer-human encounters every year. But most involve cars or hunting weapons, and the deer are the ones on the losing end. On rare occasions, frisky bucks have been known to take out their frustrations on a convenient human during the fall rutting season.
But the SIU attacks are all being blamed on females, and that is an almost unheard-of behavior.
Nielsen said the attacks this year and last appear to coincide with fawning season, when the protective instincts of mother deer are particularly acute. But that still doesn't completely explain what's going on.
The Cook County forest preserves are full of deer and people, and there has never been a report of such an assault. SIU biologists recently finished a three-summer study in which they picked up 166 fawns in fields around Southern Illinois to tag them with radio collars. Not a single mother dared to interfere.
"I have never seen anything like this anywhere," said Nielsen, an expert on urban deer populations.
As students and the public adjusted to the perplexing idea of hostile deer, university workers fanned out to post warning signs around campus. "It is a priority and it is a safety issue," said Todd D. Sigler, director of public safety at SIU. "We're trying to prevent anything additional from happening. I want it to be the end of it."
Meanwhile, nervous and curious students, faculty and community members peppered Nielsen at his seminar with questions he could not fully answer.
One of those was Henry Dewes, a 58-year-old handyman and English major who was taking his daily walk around Campus Lake about 1:45 p.m. Tuesday when he saw a doe 20 yards in the distance. Dewes said he backed away, but the doe charged anyway. Dewes ran, but the deer was much faster. "[Sprinter] Ben Johnson on steroids couldn't have beaten that deer," Dewes said.
She reared four or five times, he recalled, and slashed him on the neck and the groin, requiring five stitches. Then, suddenly, the doe just stopped, stared at him for a few seconds and walked away.
Dewes vowed the incident wouldn't deter him from his daily stroll along the lake. "My daddy always said not to be afraid and to get back on the horse," he explained. "But I'll be a lot more leery next time."
Paul Shelton, deer program manager for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, agreed that such behavior in a doe is highly unnatural. "Clearly something has occurred that has made her completely overcome her natural fear of humans," Shelton said.
SIU's leafy campus is a perfect deer habitat. There are lots of wooded areas to hide in, lots of lush green lawns to munch on, and no predators to speak of. Needless to say, hunting is not allowed on a college campus.
So SIU's deer have gotten quite used to human activity. No one knows exactly how many deer there are on campus, though the attacks have prompted a study that officials hope to use in crafting a solution.
This year's fawning season appears to have begun a little earlier than last year. But experts say it could last through much of June, so more attacks are possible.
Though it's just a theory, Nielsen said it's possible that one unusually ornery deer may be setting a bad example for others. Fawns learn everything from their mothers, he said, including where to drink, where to eat and how to protect themselves.
If fawns saw mom charge some humans, it's likely they may try it themselves if the situation arises, Nielsen said.
"It doesn't seem that this will go away," he predicted.
- - -
Deer gone wild
BUCK TRASHES HOUSE: A 150-pound buck crashed through a window of a home Wednesday in North Vernon, Ind., splattering its blood through much of the interior. City Police Sgt. Michael Piirto followed the blood trail through the house, about 50 miles south of Indianapolis, and found the injured deer lying on a bed. It had to be euthanized. "We are going to have to replace five rooms of carpet, the front window and repaint most of the walls," homeowner Danny Graham said.
CUSTOMER TACKLES DEER IN WAL-MART: A fawn entered a Wal-Mart in Norfolk, Neb., in May 2005, slipped on the floor, then scurried up and down aisles. The deer browsed awhile before a customer tackled it.
FIVE BUCKS SHOT: Game wardens shot five bucks on the streets of Helena, Mont., after the deer threatened staffers at a day-care center and a teen delivering papers.
Sources: USA Today, The Associated Press
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0605260193may26,1,1719766.story?track=rss
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