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Do deer play? Come see!

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Bucks playing with each other?

Fawns certainly do play around, but do bucks? You tell us! This looks like a bit of play, doesn't it?

This is taking place outside of the usual mating season (when a dominant buck routinely chases competition away).

Of course, this can be a 'flashback' of sorts, or one of the does suddenly started cycling and made the males mad. But even if so, looks like these two deer put a playful spin on nature's competitive mating imperative.

The video has been sped up for your amusement. In reality, this game went on for about 4 minutes.

And what hilarious moments there were:

deer playing with each other
bucks play catch me if you can

deer amusing themselves

hide and seek

Ok, let us show you a bit of the original video in its natural pace. This is how the game went on:

Still quite frolic, right?

Anyway, same evening the big buck was heard roaring a bit. So this must've been something related to mating rituals. Go figure.

Things seemed to have gotten back to normal again.

Fawns are often seen running aroud like crazy, jumping in the air, in groups, too. One day, hopefully, we'll be able to make a good quality footage of that action. Meanwhile, here's something found on the web.

Fawns do play. Evidence.

via GIPHY

(if the above clip doesn't play, please make sure your ad-blocker is turned off)

Finally, here's a picture suggesting deer play football (they don't those balls belong to our doggo)

deer playing soccer

...But wait, theres more!

Yes, deer do play

Here's an update, with a new video of our farm's deer! These guys were having the time of their lives just running around like a bunch of kids on a playground.

We caught them mid-race, already on their second lap of the field. They were having a blast, sprinting back and forth like they were training for the deer Olympics. It was amazing to see how much fun they were having, just playing for the sake of playing.

So what prompted this sudden game of tag? Well, it was a lovely day in early autumn, and we had just fed them a bit of soy. I guess that gave them the energy boost they needed to go for a little run. And boy, did they make the most of it.

Who says only humans can have fun? These deer showed us that even as adults, it's important to let loose and play once in a while. Check out the video for yourself and see these furry daredevils in action!

Why do deer play?

While some scientists tend to think deer mainly play to improve their physical abilities, others believe it's a way for them to prepare for unexpected situations by practicing losing and regaining control.

To test these hypotheses, in this study titled 'Play for prey: do deer fawns play to develop species-typical antipredator tactics or to prepare for the unexpected?' researchers decided to watch some baby mule and white-tailed deer play. 

They found that both species engage in a similar amount of fast travel and turns, which is pretty impressive considering they have different antipredator tactics.

The deer also displayed a lot of nonfunctional manoeuvres during play, which is like when you're playing basketball and you do some fancy dribbling moves that don't actually help you score, but they're still fun to do. This might help them develop cognitive and motor skills during the early juvenile period.

Overall, it seems like the deer are playing to develop similar motor skills, rather than just their species-specific antipredator tactics.

Last modified 2023-03-10 at 14:37

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I love this video. And enjoying your whole website. Deer are such beautiful animals. I had a dog that must have run with the deer. Because sometimes I would see her run so fast. And her front legs would go forward and her back legs up. Then she would glide through the air over big boulders. I just thought she looks like a deer.

wondeerful farm

Thanks for leaving a comment!

Yeah, it's funny when animals run legs over ears, ass in the air, flying like rockets)))

We're actually thinking of getting a dog too. Will have to train her to be nice to deer and vice versa. Probably safer to get a puppy for that purpose, so they can adjust to each other. Deer don't seem to be threatened by smaller mammals, just a bit curious. So they might come to terms with the dog is they see her growing up and being no threat to them. Of course, they'll be still fenced away but they like to come close to the house and there should be no stress for either of the animals when they see each other.

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Thank you very much for caring for these deer. I totally enjoy seeing and learning about their
lifestyle habits, understanding about what to feed them. and also about their teeth. We have a beautiful wooded area and I leave deer corn feeders for our group. They truly are amazing to watch.

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Loving the deer playing soccer picture! Haha

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