Month: November 2023

Have you ever hit a deer?  Depending on the circumstances, the results can range from inconvenient to catastrophic for the driver — and usually worse for the animal. 

For most of the summer, I’ve seen does and fawns serenely nibbling greenery on the wide road shoulders and ignoring passing vehicles.  These aren’t the critters to worry about; rather, it is the travelers – those deer with somewhere to be, that aren’t paying attention to where they’re going, that are panicked by the searing bright headlights and the roar of engines – that are imperiled when crossing the asphalt.  And while victims of these vehicle-animal intersections are common enough on the sides of highways and back roads, the frequency peaks in the autumn. Why is that?  More reckless driving?  The time change?  Young deer club initiation ritual?  Actually, the reason is most likely hormonal.

I’m near a university town, so let’s look at a familiar example. Take some individually-(reasonably)-responsible college kids and put them together in the noisy, alcohol-soaked hormonal haze that is beachfront Florida during spring break. Imagine all the delights the still-developing frontal lobes are tempted with, unchecked by wiser authority figures. Imagine the skyrocketing level of YOLO stupidity that propagates like a runaway nuclear reaction. Now imagine you are a 200-pound male deer whose entire decision-making process has been reduced to the choices of “chase the girls” and “fight the boys.”

Yes, Fall is the white-tailed deer’s spring break, and normal impulses (like looking for food and watching for danger) are offline. Canny bucks that normally sneak like ghosts through dense underbrush are now barreling across roads. The does you normally see serenely nibbling on the roadsides are likewise dashing over pavement. As a result, unfortunate deer-car interactions spike at this time of year.

The peak of the breeding season coincides with the peak of collisions. If you live in Georgia, you can look to the rut map, based on a UGA study of deer/car collisions, to see when the danger is highest in your county.  As the rut fades away, bucks will return to their gray-ghost sneakiness, and does will have fewer reasons to run headlong into roadways.

Always be mindful of deer, but extra vigilance is required during the deer’s spring break.