One thing to love about Athens and Ohio University is the wildlife that seem not to care they’re living among buildings, cars and people. From the designer squirrels on campus (they were brought here from Harvard in 1908 to make campus look fancier) to Court Street pigeons that will fight you for your sandwich from Bagel Street Deli, we’re all used to each other, animal and human alike. The only critters that don’t seem to like Athens or the people who live here are the groundhogs by the river. Are they secretly the smartest of us all?
The deer in Athens, in particular, are very habituated to people. Ever been on the bike path at West State Park? You’ve likely jogged past a few feet from a doe who barely looks up at you as you pass by. West Side itself has a few large groups of deer that frequent people’s backyards, and even their porches sometimes. We’ve seen deer on campus let students pet them; we’ve seen mother deer let familiar people feed their fawn clovers; we’ve seen more than one deer look us dead in the eyes before they casually cross the road right in front of our car.
Anyways, it’s not all cute. Sometimes deer jump off that Stroud’s Run overpass to their death. And apparently they can also spread COVID. What’s more, the way we interact with them, while it might seem all Snow-White, earth-goddess, can actually be dangerous to both us and them.
The Right Way to Interact with Athens Deer, On and Off-Campus
We’re not trying to stop you from living your best life; there are real reasons it’s not good for you or the deer to become too familiar:
Fun fact #1: It is not good for deer to be habituated to people enough that they’ll let you pet them, or they’ll approach you for food or interaction. It makes them unafraid, which can lead to them walking straight into buildings or through fences and becoming panicked.
Fun fact #2: Just because you approached a deer and it let you pet it doesn’t mean that if it’s startled it won’t kick you in the face in the very next moment.
Fun fact #3: Bucks who are habituated to humans will almost definitely try to fight you during rutting season when their testosterone levels are super high.
Fun fact #4: Deer are not grazers, they are browsers: they eat just a little bit of a bunch of different things. By feeding deer, you’re greatly increasing spreading a disease through the herd, and/or the deer becoming dependent on your feedings.
Not fun fact: Deer who become nuisances or can’t function as a normal wild deer anymore from being fed and/or touched by humans too much are often euthanized by ODNR.
So, next time you see a deer in Athens, look but don’t touch. If you can, stay at least 20 feet away. If you’re seeing the deer in passing, keep moving past consistently so you don’t startle it. No matter how much of a bummer it seems, the best thing for all of us is to let wild animals stay wild.