Some July Sparring action and a couple of misc. others

[BJE80]

Yummy new treat.

Pretty cool chain of pictures especially for in July

 

[Bill]

Their going to fool around and mess their racks up. :)

 

[Terrific_tom]

Very cool series of pics. Sort of unusual for them to be sparring with velvet on.

 

[BJE80]

Very cool series of pics. Sort of unusual for them to be sparring with velvet on.

Yeah I thought so too. Is sparring the correct term for this in July? I know it's just playful and starting to determine the pecking order. But they look to be fairly aggressive.

 

[Terrific_tom]

Yeah I thought so too. Is sparring the correct term for this in July? I know it's just playful and starting to determine the pecking order. But they look to be fairly aggressive.

Sparring would be the correct term. I have seen bucks get on their hind feet and kick and flail at each other when in velvet but not much antler contact.

 

[tooln]

Looks as if the little one was given a lesson.

 

[scoot52]

very nice series of pics. Scoot

 

[strawhead]

Nice looking plots and deer.

 

[buckvelvet]

That big guys a bully, you know what to do. :D

 

[Steve Bartylla]

Yeah I thought so too. Is sparring the correct term for this in July? I know it's just playful and starting to determine the pecking order. But they look to be fairly aggressive.

It looks to me like they're setting a pecking order and having some fun, but it's not a serious go around. I'm not sure that there's a universally accepted definition of sparing, but that's pretty much what I always considered it: a combo of practice, fun and feeling out where you fit in the hierarchy, but nothing overly serious. The younger bucks do it a fair amount mid-late summer. The older bucks tend to posture each other more. In either case, it helps flesh out the buck dominance hierarchy, to minimize true throw downs later.

The longer I ride this rodeo circuit, the more convinced I become that both Mother Nature and "most" mature bucks really don't want serious buck fights. Even the winner loses every time in the Midwest and points north, as they just expended a ton of energy and winter is coming. For bucks, there is such a fine line between life and death over winter that everything adds up on both sides of the line. They average losing between 20-30% body weight through the rut. Then, they have to survive winter.

P.S. cool pics

 

[Deer Kar]

They won't be quite as playful with each other in a few months ? Great pics.