The rut is unquestionably every deer herd’s most stressful time of the year, as bucks are hopped up on a surplus of testosterone, relentlessly harassing does as they seek suitors. As soon as they finally take a break from chasing does, they have other bucks attempting to establish their dominance by fighting off any and all competition. However, with such a hormonal roller coaster jam-packed into such a short window of time, it’s very common to see deer reaching their limits, crashing from sheer exhaustion. You can’t help but feel for does that are pushed too far, but rarely do you see something like we do in today’s clip.
In the following video, we see YouTuber Timothy Lewis returning from a hunt when he notices a young buck pursuing a doe, but something was very different from your typical deer encounter during the rut. The poor doe is in the water, barely keeping her head above the surface as the buck keeps nosing her and prodding her, trying to get her to stand. Eventually, the hunter decides this doe probably isn’t going to live through this encounter unless he does something. What happens next is amazing to watch.
Unfortunately, this video demonstrates how much the rut affects bucks and drives them to do stupid things. The buck was so amped up, he had no qualms about hooking this doe with his antlers and it resulted in a puncture wound to her stomach. That was probably partly why she was so out of it, but it just seemed she was dead tired too.
This was a tough video to watch and we think the hunter did the right thing by stepping in here. Nature is cruel and it’s very likely this doe would have died had that buck continued to harass her like that. It looked like she was close to giving up in the water alone. She may have used her last bit of energy just to escape the water and keep herself from drowning. Just the fact that the buck was reluctant to leave, even with the hunter approaching, shows just how determined he was to breed that doe some more.
Good job on saving this doe Timothy, we hope the doe managed to recover from this situation and lived to see another day.
For more outdoor content from Travis Smola, be sure to follow him on Twitter and check out his Geocaching and Outdoors with Travis YouTube channels.
READ MORE: THE AXIS DEER AND HOW THEY’RE IMPACTING PARTS OF THE UNITED STATES
The post Hunter Steps in to Stop Buck From Harassing Exhausted Doe to Death appeared first on Wide Open Spaces.
