Got in the blind at 3:15, wind perfect, no sightings except feral black and white cat and some beautiful cardinals and blue jays having a great time with the recently cut corn and stalks.
Fast forward to last light. Checked my peep after draw , little blurry so decide to pack up. As soon as I put my arrow in my quiver, Big Doe and 2 little ones come into field from my left, upwind and 40 yards away. Doe on full alert pacing back and forth as I grab my arrow it starts blowing and whistling like crazy and then white flags as they head across the field. Game over or so I thought.
Get my gear together, put on my headlamp and having to take a leak before my long trip to my truck. While going Same Doe comes 20 feet from my blind a, starts blowing , whistling and stamping as I am going. Would not let up, talking 5 minutes easy.
Finish, open the blind door and deer are in field 50 yards away, just standing there looking at me.
Only thing I can think of was another fawn or small deer was in the field to my left , north. Maybe Momma would not leave one behind. Really strange, never had that happen before. Crazy Doe.
From studies on some other wild animals, it appears that the number of "odd ones" is about 10%. In my experience, it seems to hold true to deer as well.
Maybe most of them get shot. The point is that the (this may not be a real word ) "Domesticability" is a genetic condition that must have some evolutionary advantage as with other random traits that crop up. Many traits lead to nothing good. Like curiosity. Some do. Like curiosity ... But that "get along with other species gene" or "I'll take a chance gene" seems to run through the animal kingdom. Some people have it too...
Maybe she is one of those that will be your backyard buddy and get herself a name so you can't easily make a meal out of her... She could be so lucky.
Literally decades ago, there was a button buck that would hang out in a field about a mile into the woods behind my parents house. It would walk into the field at about 4 almost every day. I tried to belly crawl to it, stood up about 20yds away and it looked at me. So I walked straight at it. No joke, I almost touched it's tail (as a teen, one will take risks that may not be worth it). Then it ran off. I figured that was that. Nope, I got to do the same thing, but no longer needed to belly crawl. The dang thing would just feed around and let me walk up to 5yds or so then bound off. No idea if it made it through the season :)... But mentalities like that are out there in deer land. Maybe your doe was like that skip - though as a skip, he had a good excuse to be dense... Usually does run first and ask questions later.
Wonder if you will see her again or if she's just all worked up about the spot now?
From a good nature show, I saw the domestication of wild foxes and the process of breeding out the wild ones or more specifically breeding for human compatibility. Some ( about 10 % ) were just simply human-friendly and most were so-so but some were on the aggressive end, very wild. Eventually, after several breedings, the select ones were acting like our common house pets.
Maybe that's not exactly what Brook-t experienced ( more likely as Proline said or somewhere in between... ) but it seems that Will found one for sure.
