Deer eat odd things......

bswiv

New member
So today Louann and I fished a couples bass tournament on the St. Johns here in FL. We launched in Palatka at sunrise ran north about 15 miles to a large grass point to start the day.

While we're out there we see two dogs come bounding out of the woods about 400 yards away. The dogs run out to about chest deep and start romping about. And we're not the only ones who see them.

About a hundred yards from where the dogs enter the water is a little gator, maybe 7 or 8 feet. He sees them too. We keep track of the progression of his "hunt" while we fish. Took him about 15 minutes to slip up within about 15 yards of the dogs before he disapeared under. Dogs must have been smarter than most because as soon as he slipped under they went back to land.

By 2 o'clock we had worked our way south in the river about 35 miles to the north end of Lake George. The lake is actually a very wide spot in the St. Johns, about 6 miles wide and 15 miles long. It's basically a big shallow bowl. Most of it is hard sand bottom with LOTS of eel grass, hydrilla and dollar pads rimming it.

And it is shallow in most places a long way from the bank. When the tide is low many places you can't get my flats boat within a 100 yards of the bank.

So I'm polling the boat along looking at bass beds and Louann is buzzing a toad across the grass when she says "look at the deer." Naturally I look toward the bank but quickly realize that she is pointing down the lake.

And there, standing about 50 yards off the bank, right out in the eel grass and dollar pads with the herons and egrets is a doe. As best we could tell she was eating the dollar pads. I've seen deer in the river before, usually swimming to get away from something, but I've not seen one eating dollar pads.....

Especially odd as the woods are as green as can be.
 
Ya know when I was Turkey hunting a couple of weeks ago I saw a doe in a pond. I had to do a double take. She was up to her belly in water eating something on the edge of the pond. Couldn't figure out what it was. Never saw anything like it.
 
Last edited:
table scraps

Me and a friend were bowhunting north central PA (Potter Co.).

There was a tree stump behind our rented cabin and every night we would take the remains from breakfast, and dinner, heat em up and pour over the stump then get a spot light and cameras ready for Mr. Black Bear.

Waiting in silence looking out the darkened bedroom window, we would get ready with cameras and hit the stump with the light.

No bears.

After several tries, my my . . . white tail doe, scarfiing down eggs, sausage, french fries, hot dogs and english muffin parts.

Amazing.

Rmocarsky
 
They've been known to eat fish too !! Sometimes animals eat strange things to make up for nutritional needs but sometimes they're just weird !!:)
 
where i grew up there were plenty of pot plants scattered thru the fields.

I've seen bucks eating the leaves and tearing up the plants with their antlers. I've also seen deer eat tobacco plants too.
 
One year we had a bad icy winter and the deer were eating the leaves off my Holly tree. Those leaves must be like eating barb wire, they are really nasty.
 
Animals will eat things that are surprising to us, as mete noted, an often such feedings are guided by nutritional needs. For example, pregnant or lactating squirrels will sometimes hunt and kill or scavenge small game. Franklin ground squirrel actively hunt frogs (not related to being pregnant or lactating).

Eating dollar pads doesn't seem that surprising to me. It sounds like the deer is just browsing an aquatic plant instead of a terrestrial one.
 
hydrilla

i have noticed when i pull hydrilla from around the swim area the tame deer in the neighborhood will eat practically every bit of the plant.
 
They can make a mess out of peoples decorative shrubs around here, but I can honestly say that I have never seen one eat meat let alone a hotdog and fries. Lol that is awesome. :D
 
It's not unusual here to see deer in the winter out on the flats eating kelp at low tide. They only do that when we have heavy snow, and as soon as it melts off (it never lays around long here), they'll go back to normal browsing.
 
Back
Top