The roe deer in this town are mostly very accustomed to human presence and even heavy disturbance factors such as use of heavy machinery, traffic etc.
They are not habituated in that they would not approach humans and they would always observe distance.
But they have obviously studied us and they know our routines.
Outside of traffic hours, they walk along the dirt roads, the feed in the park.
They would not flee easily on most occasions that they deem safe enough where roe deer in more rural or forested habitats would have fled.
This leads to the observation I made in late June, 2023.
It was a working day, possibly around noon.
I was walking along a dirt road which passed by an ornamental conifer plantation.
The plantation is divided in two segments.
One of the sectors is fenced and that is where the younger, more economically valuable and more vulnerable conifers grow.
There is also an unfenced area with straight lines of ornamental conifers.
In this area, many species can be seen from the road between the lines of the conifers.
Even during daytime hours when the facility is operational (there are workers around), roe deer, hares, foxes can be spotted (deer more so than other species).
Sometimes they even rest between the conifers or feed on the strips of mown lawn between the plantation rows.
The rows are very long – possibly 50 metres or more.
Looking from the road, the rows end by the fence.
As I was walking, I noticed a deer that was feeding on the grasses (and forbs) between two conifer rows.
The deer was closer to the fence and very far from the road.
I am not even certain that the deer saw me because there were trees between the plantation and the road through which I was peeking.
But there was another factor of disturbance, i.e., a worker in a bright blue shirt.
The worker had not noticed the deer or he was ignoring the deer.
The worker was on the other side of the fence.
He was, however, moving closer to the fence and retreating constantly performing some chore that I could not discern due to the great distance.
The deer was bothered by the worker’s proximity (about 7 metres from the deer) and especially, his movement which was not decisive and definite – the deer could not assess where the human would proceed to.
But it was rather sweltering and perhaps the deer had found some nice patch of forage.
The deer raised its head (from the distance I could not tell if it was a male or a female due to the colourful background that blurred out any potential antlers).
Apparently, the worker was not perceived as a threat serious enough for the deer to take immediate action.
The deer lowered its head again and snapped a few more herbs.
Then it raised its head to chew and to take in the progress in the worker’s position.
The worker was still there.
The deer put one foot forth but then stopped again and grazed some more.
Then it raised its head.
The worker was not gone.
I could almost hear the animal sigh in annoyance.
The deer took another bite but I thought that the proximity was starting to get on its nerves and it was now contemplating retreat.
As the deer raised its head once again, the worker moved out of the sight.
The deer kept feeding as if saying, ‘All for the better.’
It was rather fun to watch the deer making decisions between thermoregulation, foraging and danger/disturbance embodied by the human worker.
It was also fun to see how the incident unfolded in a manner where the idle deer vigilant enough but not overly so, prevailed due to the tendency by humans to rush, rush, rush while the deer was enjoying a good meal, a good shade and some nice noontime leisure.
Notes by Ieva 