The Deer Still Dance

It was last Spring (2022),

I was reading “Little Brother to the Bear” to the age 8-11 year old kids in our homeschool co-op. The author tells stories of animal behavior he observed while spending hours and days alone in the wild (in Canada, I think.)

One of the stories was of the deer playing a game or a dance where they ran in a circle or a figure-eight pattern, leaping and bounding.

My feeling reading this story was that we had no chance of observing this for ourselves, because it was written so long ago, and there are so few wild places left, and we don’t spend that much time outside.

I even thought that probably the animals don’t act like that any more.

But this morning, before dawn, Blueberry Pie went out to his car, and there were white-tailed deer in our yard.

He later described to me that they were running fast in a circle or a figure-eight pattern, as if they were playing a game or doing a dance.

They completely ignored him for several minutes.

You guys!! The deer still dance! 😭😭🥰