Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Apparently Deer are Now Predators!...and Ultrarunning

....A plea for scientific accuracy from Gary, owner of Mister Tristan (the blog, not the 7-year-old human being).

Read the main headline of this ad from a gadget catalog that showed up in my mailbox a couple days ago.  I was totally unaware that deer are predators.  And I have a BS and an MS in Biology!

Maybe it's a man-made climate change phenomenon?



Most animals fit fairly cleanly into the categories of herbivore (plant eater) or carnivore (meat eater).  I do realize that many animals swing both ways; i.e., are omnivores, meaning they eat whatever they can, be it plants or meat.

But deer are NOT predators--they are as herbivorous as an animal can be!

Back to the ad--deer certainly can be nighttime pests, but not by virtue of being predators.

However, let's err on the side of caution and take the ad at face value: better be careful out there in the backcountry.  Never know when you might jump a vicious predatory deer that has YOU in his sights for dinner!


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