King Buck

Building on the last post... Two nights ago there were six buck in the back woods-- all at once. That's three more than recent weeks and an all time high. I have been perplexed on the guys hanging out, specifically their friendliness together, my unexpected sighting of the licking and wondering about the domestication of these animals. It's unclear to me whether traveling as a group comes from their natural way of life or if it is an effect of living in a habitat constricted area of northern New Jersey. The guys continue to come every night before sunset and stay for about an hour, eating the newest leaves and resting in the leaf beds.

Among the six there are four who are smaller size. One of the four displays a limp and very limited use of his left rear leg- probably a casualty of a run in with a car. Then there are two big guys who seem to travel together. My observation is that with six males in the yard the larger animals keep a distance from the smaller. While the two big guys went for the bed of leaves the smaller guys stayed about 30 yards away. One time there was a disagreement when one of them went wanted to join them on the bed. A few snorts, a quick head but and kick and the smaller guy moved on.

In this picture is the 'King Buck', sporting the largest antler rack I've ever seen close up. So my theory today is that there is a hierarchy going on in the group of 6 that can be occasionally adversarial. And second, the group of 6 appears to be two sub-groups of larger and smaller bucks. I will continue to observe-- all the while re-confirming that Nature, including these friends, is wondrous.