My wife and I have some native grass and trees in the parklands of central Alberta. It is in a little island of mule deer in a sea of whitetails. Mule deer use our place sparingly in the winter, with a few does taking up permanent residence in the spring. More deer trickle in over the summer and through the fall until we host one of the bigger doe herds in the area. They all leave once the snow gets deep. We think they are a bit vulnerable to coyotes when the snow is deeper and head for rougher and more open terrain. Anyway, we were out there on the weekend and looked out the window only to see two mulie bucks in a sparing match. They kept at it for 10 mins before taking the fight behind some bushes, so we don't really know how long it lasted. I'd never seen a sparing match before and didn't expect to see one on Jan. 8!

The bucks were cautious engaging and the first one to disengage ran for his life while the other one tried to stick him in the guts. We saw this happen 3 or 4 times and never could predict who would back out first. I guess they wouldn't be sparing if they weren't evenly matched. These weren't the dominant bucks in the area, just 2 1/2, maybe 3 1/2 yr olds of which there were a lot this year. Once the fight drifted out of view, a 1 1/2 yr old buck appeared (lots of them this year too) and started sniffing a doe. This doe is interesting. We think she is the same one that dropped a really late fawn this summer. The fawn has survived so far, but was still suckling in November and is still noticably smaller than the other fawns. The mild start to the winter might be enough to save her.

Interesting stuff, especially when stuck in an office on a snowy afternoon .

Cheers,
Dean