Deer In The Road

Can deer not see well? Are they slow to process what they see?

For half of my last few rides, I've been blessed or cursed with deer in the road ahead of me.

I make noise to try to get them to move on.

The problem: They stand there and stare at me...do they see me from 75 feet away? 50 feet? 25 feet?

Unfortunately, they're often standing in the other lane...and I'm afraid a car will crest a hill and hit the deer right in front of me hurting the deer, the driver, or me:eek:

Are there special techniques to avoiding this?

Get a bell.

A bit OT, as I have no idea how to actually deal with deer...

When I was in college I spent a quarter or two commuting to school by bike (in Rochester, NY, in the winter.... I think I was crazy....) One dark, icy morning the herd of deer that used to hang out at the golf course decided to cross the road just as I was coming by :eek: Scared the bejeezus out of me.

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Originally Posted by Mr. Silver

Can deer not see well? Are they slow to process what they see?

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Now, don't take this the wrong way, because I love all animals.
But I think deer are just stupid.
Yeah, trains have swivelling lights in front to break the trance of the proverbial "Deer in the headlights" but I have yelled at deer, rung a bell at deer, and they still just stand there with a vacant look on their face. I really don't think they have much going on between the ears. They have 2 main thoughts that occupy their brain "Is this good to eat?" and "Makin' babies."

If you see a deer on the road, yell, ring a bell, and then slow down. It could turn and run right at you just as easily as turning and running away. And if one is running across the road, slow down, because there is likely a second (or third) one coming along right behind it.

Cute critters. But dumb as posts.

I've had some close calls with deer as well--especially the early morning rides. There's no one coming for miles and then they decide to jump into the road just as I ride up with my bike.

I've tried waving my hands and yelling too. No luck. There they stand until I'm a foot away.

By the way, the same is true with teenagers riding bikes. They slowly weave back and forth in the middle of the road or on the wrong side of the road. And when I'm five feet from them they veer directly into my path. Texting. They are TEXTING while riding their bikes. Without helments. On the wrong side of the road.

Sorry, OT. But I treat them as cautiously as I treat deer when I see them coming up.

Teenagers have the same thought processes as deer. :rolleyes:

V.

Yup, have to be careful with deer. A guy I know woke up in the middle of a road with a broken bike (and body). Had no idea what had happened to him. Luckily, it was a fairly well traveled road and help arrived quickly.

When one of the mechanics looked at his bike, he found fur/hair and concluded... a deer had jumped out either right on him or right in front of him.:eek:

Based on experience with deer out in the woods, I've found that they're more likely to become startled and run off if you stop and stare at them. If you're moving, they're less likely to perceive you as a threat, so they just watch to see what you're going to do. When you stop, though, they realize that you see them and that's when they decide to get the heck out of dodge, as it were.

Squirrels, now, are the ones that I think are truly stupid. I ran over one with my bike once because it scampered to one side of the trail, then changed it's mind and decided that it wanted to go back to the other side just as I was passing it. I've begun watching them since then, and damned if that isn't typical of them. Rabbits are much smarter. They'll run alongside the trail parallel to you, then run away off to the side.

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Originally Posted by Veronica

Teenagers have the same thought processes as deer. :rolleyes:

V.

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Ohhhhhhhhhh this made me spit my Diet Dr. Pepper! lolololol

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Originally Posted by Kalidurga

Squirrels, now, are the ones that I think are truly stupid. I ran over one with my bike once because it scampered to one side of the trail, then changed it's mind and decided that it wanted to go back to the other side just as I was passing it.

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My husband and I have a theory about this..... we think that they first run from you, then the urge to get to the nearest tree or maybe even "their" tree kicks in and they run to it even if it means crossing your path again...

I guess the deer on my former commute (I retired in June, yay me) were unusually smart. I saw lots of deer, when my commutes coincided with dawn or dusk I would see as many a 13 on an 8.5 mi ride. They would stand at the side of the road and watch me. I always figured it was because they were in a wildlife sanctuary and their only real predators were cars, so they were vehicle aware. Too bad some of the drivers on my route weren't as smart. I always gave the dumb prize to the turkeys. They wouldn't move for anything and it wasn't unusual to see 5 or 6 cars waiting for the turkeys to get out of the road. Someday I would like to ride in a bicycle preserve.

We have TONS of deer here.
When I actually SEE a deer in the road or crossing the road, i'm glad because then I can slow down right away and I also know there may be others following it.
It's the deer I DON'T see that worry me. The ones that suddenly come bounding out of the woods a few yards in front of me and leaping right across my path as I'm going 25 mph along a country road.
I know that one day one I am likely to collide with one of these deer ambushes, and it won't be pretty. :(

This is what happened tome in my car....twice. Deer leaping out from the woods and colliding right into the side of my car as I was driving 25 mph down wooded roads near my home.
Lots of damage- fender/sidepanel replacements, side headlights, passenger window shattered, hood replaced (as the deer bounced off my car side and then landed on the hood). I can only hope some deer doesn't do this to me on my bike.
So....be glad when you SEE the deer. :o

All I can say is that as crowded as it may get here in NYC, that is a problem that we definitely don't have! :p

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Originally Posted by Veronica

Teenagers have the same thought processes as deer. :rolleyes:

V.

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Actually, the deer are probably a little smarter...

LOL! :) I have learned that deer are very inquisitive. That may be part of the problem.

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Originally Posted by rij73

All I can say is that as crowded as it may get here in NYC, that is a problem that we definitely don't have! :p

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;);););):D

Lone deer are one thing...be very aware of adults with fawns.

My dog was once attacked by a huge deer that had just given birth. I stood between my dog and the deer (before I knew why the deer was chasing my dog) and the deer came after me. Luckily, I was right in front of our deck, so I bounded up it and got inside. The deer then turned and left and I noticed blood on it's rear.

It was not 2 minutes later when we saw it through the trees nuzzling a tiny baby, barely standing and wet! :eek:

In that same neighborhood (where deer out numbered people about 10 to 1) I had other deer showing agression when their offspring were close. So I'd say deer have three thoughts "Is this good to eat" "Makin' babies" and "protect the young". ;)

There was a guy about three years ago here who was riding down the road and a deer ran through a barb wire fence, hit him, kept going - leaving the cyclist tangled in the barbed wire. :eek:

I think deer are as bright as squirrels. I've seen them dodge back and forth like them and everything - and they're a lot heavier than they look.

You guys are funny!!! Unfortunately, I'm not.

All I have to add is - stupid or not, deer are known for having bad eyesight. Teenagers not so much.

Be careful out there.

H&B
~T~

I'm so afraid of hitting one on my bike and have had a couple of close calls...including almost falling off a bridge over a train track. I yell at them and brace for impact. Last time I was meeting a car on a country road and I thought the car was going to hit the doe and spatter her into me and then the other deer in the bushes jumped out into the mix, too.

There's always one in the bushes.

They're not all cute Bambis, either. A couple of weeks ago I had to suture a dog, a small beagle, that had been attacked by a doe. I expect she was guarding her fawn. Neighbors of the dogs owner chased the deer away. She was lacerated and bruised all over.

This is my fear, I see one, but there may be 10 about to run into the road.

I think with these responses that I'm resolved that my teenage kids don't listen to me...so why should I expect deer to pay attention to me:D

Now really, don't you ever panic and just FREEZE? That's what's going on with deer I believe.

I've heard from enough hunters that deer are actually pretty smart. But they can get to a place where terror overwhelms them, especially when they're exposed to things like headlights and fast-moving vehicles that don't make any sense to them from an evolutionary standpoint.

Lots of deer here as well. They tend to just hang out until you get close. We just slow down, sometime yelling - I still like watching them run.

Last year a guy hit a deer during RAIN, trashed the bike, maybe a broken collar bone - but I forget for sure.

My grandfather was driving on a dirt road in a remote part of Idaho and there was a steep slope on one side of the road. A deer jumped INTO the back of his pick up and rode there for about .2 of a mile. It must have taken awhile for his brain to register that he was moving even though his legs weren't. He finally jumped.

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Teenagers have the same thought processes as deer.

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I remember those years quite fawndly - woops - I mean fondly. Or is it fondle - ey??? :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by OakLeaf

I've heard from enough hunters that deer are actually pretty smart. But they can get to a place where terror overwhelms them, especially when they're exposed to things like headlights and fast-moving vehicles that don't make any sense to them from an evolutionary standpoint.

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exactly. For the same reason you see every other animal dead in the road. a million years of evolution did not prepare them for cars whizzing by at 25+ mph and bicycles which make almost no noise and might be going even faster than that 25mph. Act like you want to eat the deer, maybe it will help! chase 'em!

remember, that deer you might be looking at might have never seen a bike before.. or know what to do about it!

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Originally Posted by mimitabby

Act like you want to eat the deer, maybe it will help! chase 'em!

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I've tried that. Growling, yelling. Chasing them after them like some kind of crazy woman. Return a sense of fear in them, I figure. Suburban deer, at any rate, with no hunting pressure, almost seem to have a strange sense of entitlement about them and little fear of passing humans. "My yard." "My azaleas." "My road." Yeah, I'm anthropomorphizing, but on my rides when I see deer....I"m not feelin' the fear.

I think Oakleaf has it right.

I also think freezing is a defense mechanism. I think it actually works in the woods. I have seen deer while hiking in the woods, and driven by deer that have just leaped across the road and frozen when they hit the woods, and when they freeze in the woods, they really do sort of disappear -- they blend in with trees and brush. Apparently the primitive part of their brains just hasn't caught up with this modernity thing and doesn't realize that if they freeze in the middle of the road, a) we can see them and b) the danger doesn't go away.

I think deer are beautiful.

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Originally Posted by liza

I think deer are beautiful.

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Me Too...at 50 feet! not 50 centimeters:p