This urban deer has almost no reaction to the woman petting him.
Deer are increasingly being found in urban environments across North America. Chalk it up to a bit of habitat loss and part of it to smarter animals knowing they are safer during deer season in the city than they probably are in the country. Either way, humans and deer are interacting more than ever before.
Every so often, you get strange and unexpected encounters like what you'll see with today's video. Watch as this woman approaches this seemingly unafraid 7-point buck.
Clearly, she did not expect what happens next. The buck lets the woman approach him AND he allows her to pet him. It's the type of crazy thing that would be hard to believe were there not video evidence to prove it.
Well, that's not something you see every day, and judging from the beeping cars, they had never seen anything like this before either. My previous experience with urban deer is that while they are less afraid than humans, they still do not usually allow people to approach like this. This was an isolated and very odd incident.
It seems this buck's attention was diverted elsewhere since he barely acknowledged the woman standing there or touching him. It's hard to say from his body language just what is going on, but it seems like he's closely watching some other deer off-camera that we cannot see here. Perhaps a rival buck or a doe he plans on chasing.
In any case, we cannot recommend doing this, even with an urban deer that sees humans every day. These are still wild animals and they are stronger than they appear. One can easily hurt a human if it wants. Especially during the rut when the animals are more aggressive than normal.
For more outdoor content from Travis Smola, be sure to follow him on Twitter and check out his Geocaching and Outdoors with Travis YouTube channels.
NEXT: THE AXIS DEER AND HOW THEY'RE IMPACTING PARTS OF THE UNITED STATES
