# Deer and Cats



## Goldtanker (Jan 9, 2011)

Anyone else have experience with deer and cats? The deer in my local herd are fascinated with Midnight, the wild cat. They stare at him, bob their heads, and stomp their feet, just like they do with other strange objects that appear in their territory. When he is out in the woods, the deer follow him and try to get a closer look. This bugs Midnight because deer are BIG animals to him, so he tries to avoid them. The deer have no problem with the foxes and have been seen eating sunflower seeds right next to each other. (BTW, Midnight sometimes travels with the foxes, so it's not like he's a Fraidy-Cat ) If he is on his favorite perch in the sun during the Winter (Recycle Bin) minding his own business, as in this photo:










The deer will stare at him.

Case in point. Here is Buttonhead, the little guy who approaches me for sunflower seed treats. He's not afraid of me - but he is staring at Midnight, just yesterday, like he was from outer space. The picnic bench is about 25 feet from the recycle bin, but other deer stare at him from even farther away.


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## konstargirl (Feb 4, 2011)

I'm surprise that midnight didn't attack her( You know using their wild instincts to catch their pray.)


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## Goldtanker (Jan 9, 2011)

Buttonhead is a pretty savvy guy. Not afraid of certain humans and wary of coyotes in the area. But cats?


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## bluemilk (Oct 3, 2005)

Incredible! They just WALK up to your house? I guess it's O.K. if they're so friendly... Cat's and GEESE don't mix!

What other animals come into your yard? Bears? Foxes? Moose? I always wanted to see a wolf up close... You're very fortunate!


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## Goldtanker (Jan 9, 2011)

Bears and foxes - Yes. No moose so far.  We did raise a wolf back in the 70's. Here she is as a pup with Mrs. GT.


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## MowMow (Nov 6, 2010)

Maybe it's just instinct. I'm sure he does some hunting when he's out on his jaunts. Maybe they can smell (however faint after washing) blood or something in/on him that is predatory.


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## tghsmith (Dec 9, 2010)

my smokey, rehabbed bird killing feral, stalks the deer in the yard, I've watched him position himself as to cut out one of the smaller deer from the rest, he backs out of the deal and evidently decides though it smaller than the others, its still a little big,, look in the woods behind him..


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## Goldtanker (Jan 9, 2011)

This morning Midnight was out on his garbage can and I was scratching his head and neck while Buttonhead was standing about 15 feet away, watching. Maybe he will now see that Midnight is not a threat. We'll see.


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## Layla0710 (Nov 30, 2010)

I like Midnight- sounds like he has a really laid back, happy-go-lucky personality. Cute pics!


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## suwanee (Jan 22, 2011)

I was thinking about the collective consciousness of animals. Instinct. 

The deer, "hm, wonder if that little cat has a mommy somewhere?"

The cat, "hm, herbivore = food. Why are they so big?"


There used to be large cats in North America. Granted the domestic house cat wouldn't have any memories or familial instincts regarding deer, but the deer would certainly have familial memories of large cats like Mountain Lion, Puma, Cougar.

Curiosity between species is fascinating.


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## Carmel (Nov 23, 2010)

Yeah, I've watched around six cats over the years around deer. There's about twenty deer on the island our summer cabin is located on and we get about five of them coming for handouts daily... we'll throw them a little apple or something and they aren't too scared of people. There's pictures of me as young as three holding out arbutus branches for them to eat.

Most often, the cats and the deer act leery around each other, or one of them will show interest and other other will show fear, or they ingore each other unless one gets to close (causing the deer to bound off) but sometimes they're both curious. There's a few pictures of a family cat and a deer going nose to nose about ten years back. If I can ever find the picture I'll share it here.


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## Carmel (Nov 23, 2010)

Since we're in a deer related thread, here's a few pictures of deer I took two years ago at the cabin.


This is the largest number of deer at once I think we've ever seen on the island, we were going on a walk around the island and saw them. We also saw on that walk about five other deer in various places. It was certainly the most deer filled walk we've ever gone on... since there's no cars on the island I think they have a pretty good time living there, there's hardly anyone on the island during the winter months.


Fawns! ♥ 

I'll see if I can find any deer with cat images on the computer...


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## tghsmith (Dec 9, 2010)

smokey, still believes pumas are in the southeast, he thinks he is one!!! normal pic of our back yard several feet from the wood pile, about 1/4 of the herd, have an older pic with 21 deer on that spot, when we let smokey out of his kennel, you can hear the squirrel alarm calls from 1/2 mile "the monster is loose, run to the tree tops" they remember his wild days...


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