Oh deer ....

[mds101]

You must have a really nice commute to be able to hit a deer. I'm a bit jealous.

 

[Maz]

Mmmm......venison!

I think I'm correct in saying however, that the person who hit it is not allowed to take the roadkill home but the person following can.

Ya nah gan eat me, are yers? Why I, man?

 

[Arch]

Checked out the bike and all appears well

The deer did not die, just got a tenderised rump, so no roadkill to be had. We mostly have Fallow and Muntjac around these parts. I came close to a Fallow deer last spring, it was at the edge of the road, I could have touched it as I rode past. The scary thing was that its head was a the same height as mine, small horse size.

I think most people (including me until I got to know more) forget how big deer are. Red deer bones can be confused with those of cattle, in size terms - and a cow is big! Maybe we all have a mental image of something bambi sized.

 

[Brahan]

I had a robin fly into my spokes once. It was just a faint puff of feathers followed almost instantly by death. Poor thing. I don't think I'd feel sorry for a deer though.

 

[HLaB]

Oh I guess a deer could do a fair bit of damage. On Sunday night in the pitch black on a steep down hill I spotted a cat at the side of the verge, the poor thing jumped suddenly jumped out, it just missed my front wheel at went under my axle. I must of ran over it with my rear judging from the sound. Fortunately for me the thing was too small to cause a problem.

 

[arranandy]

The first bit of my commute is through Strathclyde Park and I quite often see roe deer in the morning. Can be a bit disconcerting when they decide to run across the road in front of you

 

[J4CKO]

Saw a Hare the other morning.

 

[Cubist]

A friend of mine is a gamekeeper on a large estate in Perthshire. One day an elderly neighbour drove up to him and asked him to help gralloch a Roebuck he had hit with the car. The 'keeper could see a large dent in the front of the VW Polo and asked where the deer was. "It's in the boot." was the reply.

He went to the rear hatchback and was amazed to see the deer was very much still alive, despite the man's protestations that he was sure it was dead when he loaded it into the boot! He could see that the beast was injured, and needed to be put out of its misery, but of course he was going to be faced with the daunting task of restraining it without letting it get out of the car boot.

He asked the neighbour to open the boot just a fraction so that he could tie a rope onto it, and as he was reaching in through a gap of about 6 inches when the deer kicked out. The neighbour was so surprised he let go of the boot lid and the deer kicked again, this time full force in a desperate struggle to escape. One of its cloven hooves opened up a gash on his arm which took 30 or so stitches.

By the way, the "you can't pick up roadkill but the car behind can" is a myth. (probably perpetuated by country coppers fancying a bit of pheasant for tea....) You may well however be breaking some of the game laws if the animal in question is out of season.

 

[threefingerjoe]

A friend of mine was killed 2 years ago, by a white tail deer, that jumped into the side of the motorcycle she was riding on (her husband was driving). It hit her directly, and she died almost instantly. Her husband spent the entire summer in hospital, and still isn't completely recovered.