Carnivorous Deer!

2 really big surprises yesterday.

a) A deer waded into our pond (our pond is about 220' long bu 90' wide and gets to about 4' deep at most) and started eating my wife's lilies - which annoyed her to no end, but it was interesting to watch. We've never seen that before. but then...

b) The deer suddenly stuck it's head into the water and came up with A FISH which it ATE!!!!

Now this was a double-super amazing thing to me, because I thought there were no fish at all in the pond and, well, a mean it was a DEER EATING A FISH. As it turns out, there's been reports of this happening before. We would have gotten video if my camera batteries hadn't run out the MOMENT we hit "record" - but I'm want to set up a motion-detecting webcam thing out there and maybe we'll see it again. Anyone have a "CS" mount security camera lens that they want to donate to the Dreaded Carnivorous Deer Cam project? Contact me off-list if you do!

Sounds like the storyline of some cheesy B-movie--gentle, plant-loving deer eat grass tainted with illegally dumped toxic waste. Overnight, they turn into ferocious creatures with a taste for human flesh and rampage through the nearby town.

Interesting! I have never heard of any grazing animal voluntarily eating meat. I do have some vegetarian friends who eat fish, so maybe there is something deeper at work here.

And in the near-coincidence department: My wife saw two deer swim past our beach (we live on Lake Erie) this morning. Maybe they were stalking some perch.

I'm telling you, there's weirdness afoot in the water. Stop watching the skies with dread, look DOWN instead!!!

-Blast

As far as having fish in your pond. You can't keep fish OUT of your pond. If you have a 2ft. diameter puddle that never dries up (like a spring) you will get fish in it. I've seen this dozens of times over the years and have always wondered how.

One example, we have a wet weather creek that cuts through my property. We have had a pretty extreme drought the last 3 years, and it had been almost 2 1/2 years with never enough rain to make it even trickle, no water in it at all. Late this last year the drought finally broke and it ran and filled up. This is only fed from the bar ditch alongside the road. This spring a couple of deep spots that hold water were full of small perch. I don't know, maybe their eggs dry up and can still be viable years later, like those shrimp eggs you used to get in the science kits. Other people have said fish eggs stick to the legs of wading birds (I don't buy that!) Maybe even the birds are smart enough to stock new territory by releasing fish on purpose.

Anyway, I would be more surprised if you didn't have fish in a pond that size.

The "immaculate conception" of fish in ponds and streams comes primarily from bird poop. They eat the eggs and poop out what doesn't get destroyed. Birds have a rather poor digestive system.

Those deer observed swimming Lake Erie are actually "Illegal Deer Aliens/Immigrants" and are the 1st wave of the "Canadian Invasion Hoarde"! That's why the USCG breaks the ice every winter, It's a "Homeland Defensive Measure"! Remember, the USCG is not just the professionl war-fighting core that the US Navy clings to in time of war!

So those are fish eggs on my windshield? I've tried cavier a couple of times and thought it wasn't too bad. Maybe on a cracker, Gaack!!!

Yes, that's why seagull poop tastes so tart and tangy!! Ask any old Buoy Tender sailor, we've become experts on this subject!!!

Squirrels are rodents who live in a slightly better neighborhood than their cousins, the rats. Push comes to shove, they'll eat anything. The only reason they don't scavenge around here is because of all the bird seed they steal from the feeders in every back yard. We are talking some very obese squirrels, let me tell you.

I was talking talking about grass-eating, cud-chewing animals with hooves and no canine teeth. Then it occurred to me, mad cow disease was spread by feeding cattle a supplement that included the ground-up remains of dead, and unknown to the farmers, infected, cows. So grazing animals can eat meat or "meat by-products" (a term that has always quietly terrified me anyway).

"Bambi's Revenge", brought to you by the producers of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre".

Sue

I would talk to Fish And Game, they might be interested. I recall reading somewheres that despite their reputation, piranha prefer a vegetarian diet and only eat meat when the water is at it's lowest and they are their hungriest. Maybe there is a dietary deficiency at play?

Although I'd like to point out that deer are extremely stupid. When I lived at home, part of the land is set up as a pistol/light rifle range and the deer would watch me shoot from about a hundred feet away. It might not have realized it was eating a fish, or even that it's legs were wet.

This picture keeps popping into my head. The deer lowers it's head to drink, and a fish grabs it and pulls it in! That's what I want to see on tape.

I read about this in a hunting magazine some years ago. They even had a photo sequence as proof and it wasn´t the april issue. It seems to happen in areas where the deer has lack of calcium. The magazine has pretty good reputation so it might well be true.

That actually makes a lot of sense. A lot of herbivores will gnaw on large bones of the dead after carnivores and scavengers are done to get to the calcium, rodents are murder on skeletons.