Just a few weeks ago, I “bagged” my first deer. Allow me to qualify that. No, I’m not a hunter; I had no intention of taking a deer in any fashion on that day. It was an entirely accidental event. Driving down my street on my way to shul, in the deep darkness just a few minutes before 6 a.m. – a daily modus operandi that permits me to learn for about half an hour before davening begins – a small deer darted in front of my car’s right side. No one, I am convinced, could have averted that deer collision. Still, an awful lot went through my mind as soon as it happened. I assured myself that I had not, chas v’shalom, struck a child; surely, it couldn’t have been a careless and unguarded child running into the street to catch a lost ball. Children simply aren’t out playing at 5:55 a.m., when the only background light is provided by streetlamps. The fact that I had seen a momentary flash of light brown as the collision occurred allowed me to take a first deep breath.
My next thought, while still on my
minute-and-a-half ride to shul, was that selichos would be beginning the
following week. If ever there was a wake-up call about how our lives hang in
the balance, this was it. The notion of taking the life of a larger mammal was
truly humbling and unsettling for me. And what is it that our people of
yesteryear were supposed to be thinking when they offered a korban for a
wrongdoing? That it could/should really have been me lying on the mizbe’ach
giving up my life. For all its brevity, this collision surely was a most
humbling experience and a kapparah of notable degree. With “only” an
$800 car repair to go along with the experience, I must believe that I got off
rather easily.
*
* *
Curiously, I know a fair amount
about White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virgianus, for you scientists out
there). Retired but still highly enthusiastic ecologist that I am, deer figured
prominently in the work I used to do and in the research that I conducted. For
example, I have a good sense of about how much turf a deer covers in the course
of a day, a week, a month, etc. Tracking their movements through having deer
wear GPS-type collars, programmed to record their precise latitude-longitude
locations several times a day, provided that information. It was information that
I was fortunate enough to publish and discuss in peer-reviewed technical papers
and in my two books.
It is important to recognize that
the deer we so commonly observe in our growing Jewish community reflect a
dynamic – not static – ecology. Deer, like many animals, are creatures of habit,
seeking out opportunities to explore and populate newer areas, and certainly when
there is just the right push. It should come as no surprise that the conversion,
already two decades ago, of the old-style rock quarry on Greenspring Avenue to
the vast housing and bustling commercial development that we know today as Quarry
Lake/Quarry Heights, handily accounts for the sizeable deer population increase.
Disturbing, or taking away altogether, the landscape the deer formerly called
home has caused them to fan out geographically, finding new locations to
occupy. It’s been a gradual expansion, but one that certainly can’t be ignored.
All I know is that the deer numbers we have around town today dwarf by tens of
times what I recall from 31 years ago, when my family settled in Baltimore!
*
* *
Man’s associations with animals and
plants in urban settings are generally either neutral or negative. As for deer,
there are at least three negatives I know of. First, they nibble the plants you
might be growing (make that, trying to grow) in your yard. I’m no expert, but
two possible solutions here include learning the types of plants that deer stay
clear of and spraying your planting areas with deer repellant. This just might
work.
Second, encountering deer droppings
is an annoyance to be sure, but it’s not such a big price to pay. For me, it
means having to do a little cleanup before I set out to mow my lawn.
Third, car collisions, where this
piece started, is potentially the most serious of the negative associations we
have with deer – and they seem to be increasing. About two days after I wrote
this piece, a much larger deer than the one I had hit, had been struck on my
very block. Less than a week after that, just as my shul’s annual teshuva
drasha was beginning, with still plenty of daylight left, a huge, well
antlered deer – now is the season for antler growth – collided with a van right
in front of the shul.
There isn’t a lot we can do to
manage this risk. (Even if you have a valid hunting license, our local
neighborhoods are simply not sanctioned hunting grounds. Sorry.) I was driving
at 25 miles per hour, the posted speed limit, and you see what happened. The
consequences for a driver can be significantly greater when exceeding the speed
limit! It’s important to know that deer are crepuscular; that’s the fancy word
for being most active at dusk and dawn. People should try to be most alert when
driving at these times. As for just meeting up with a deer on foot, as happens
to me often enough when I’m walking to my car in the evening or toting my
garbage to the alley behind my house, there’s nothing to worry about. Deer are
docile, and they won’t charge at you or anything like that. They will likely stare
you down, though, as you walk near them.
If you should end up striking a
deer, you can simply call 311 and report the location of the carcass; you
needn’t call the Department of Natural Resources to have the carcass taken
away.
Meanwhile, deer-ive safely, please.
