Deer Trails

Posted on July 8, 2004 in Biomes

Summer has yellowed the grass and the deer have flattened it along the courses they love to run. The doubled hooves appear in the gray soil of the official human trails abruptly and disappear just as suddenly. This is how I knew to look away from my study of dust and find the entrances to the shared routes.

Deer tracks often run straight through bushes. The scrub isn’t very high — never more than two feet, but it is large enough to block the way. I figure that deer know their own courses like we learned the paths we used when we ran from angry parents or bullies when we were younger. The deer know just when to jump over the bushes that are coming up, which can prove helpful when they are being pursued by a mountain lion or a human hunter. The seconds which they gain while the predator deals with the surprise of the trivial obstacle could be lifesaving.

When we walked in Whiting just before sunset, I heard deer running from us along these paths. I also saw their tracks and those of quail, which crowded the Edison Trail as it climbed to its dead end along the side of Dreaded Hill.