It’s not something you see everyday.
An inquisitive and friendly deer decided to make a new friend on Wednesday afternoon, much to the delight of the teenager’s mother.
Maegan Higgins was sitting on the beach at Kalamalka Lake in Vernon with her teenage son, Miles, when a deer appeared and started rubbing its head around Miles’s head and body.
Maegan says she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
The deer continued to follow them for a while and Higgins says it was never aggressive towards them.
Marina Langland, a veterinary nurse with the Wildlife Rescue Association of BC, says the deer was in no way acting aggressive towards Miles.
Being an adolescent male, Langland says there are two avenues of thought about what the deer is doing.
“He’s a little young, but the first avenue is that he’s rubbing to get the fur off his antlers,” she says.
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“The velvet has to come off to get the bone to harden.”
However, Langland says because deer do not typically display this behaviour until later in the season, the more likely reason is the deer was trying to scent Miles.
Antlers have scent glands at their base, so deer will rub objects in order to scent them.
“I don’t know if he was particularly fond of the boy,” Langland laughs.
She does note this is a very odd interaction to see, and that this deer might be more used to people if it lives in an urbanized area.
She does caution however, we should still be wary around deer as they do tend to be more aggressive than affectionate towards people.
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