For the Plate…Maybe, For the Wall…Another Maybe - Is Something Going On?

Around mid-morning today I had an odd chance encounter with this nice looking whitetail buck. For the initial sighting he just stood on the road and looked at me. Of course when I put my camera out the window of the Jeep he ran to the south at a good speed. I continued east and to my surprise he appeared again. This time he was determined to cross the road in front of me to head to a timber nearly one-half mile away to the north. There was no slow motion for him this time, but that is when things got interesting.

After running across the road in front of me I watched him through my camera. Several times he did violent head shakes back and forth. During at least one of the head shakes he stumbled and nearly went to the ground. Even after nearly falling he continued to run and shake his head. His jumping and shaking reminded me of a bucking bull at a rodeo.

I do not know what to make of this behavior. Nothing was visible on his head (that would have made figuring this out easy). He seemed OK otherwise, except for his delay in running (maybe due to the rut and thinking of only one thing?). Is he sick? Would he be safe to eat? Would he be safe to handle if down? I just don’t know. What I do know is my gut tells me something was not right with him. I just cannot identify what.

An added couple of details muddy up this situation... Not far from where I saw this fellow there was a dead doe out in a field. I suppose she may have been hit by a car, but this was on a very minimally traveled gravel road. Maybe she was hit by a hunter and succumbed later? Maybe she had something wrong with her?

And, about a quarter mile down the road from the buck and dead doe there was another live doe standing on the road. She too was in no hurry to head for cover.

Let’s hope there is nothing going on here. (I want to be a “glass half full person” but something seems off.)