Can you make any sense of this ??

[Bushmaster]

On my way into work Mon. morning, just as I came over a little rise in the road, I saw this doe pawing at the ice on this mel****er. As I got closer, she just plopped down in the water ?? Never seen anything like it. It was 6:30 A.M., about -4 degrees....and she just looked at me as I took the pic....

Any ideas ...

[albertadeer]

Was she really ticked out? Moose will drown ticks in the spring...It doesn't look like shes doing that though, this is just strange....

[Redfrog]

Blame it on the global warming we've had this year. The deer have been staying on the roads more to avoid the coyotes and the eep snow. when a vehicle comes along they can either jump in ditch full of snow, run along till the guy in the vehicle backs off a bit so they can fins a plowed access or pull out or they lie down and wait till you pass.

[Bushmaster]

Red, I don't think she was trying to avoid me....she didn't even look my way until I got out to take the pic. Had a cow guy say that cows will do that somketimes when they are going to abort...??

And the snow has shrunk down enough in this field that she had room to run away if that was her motive...

[Lefty-Canuck]

Well she is in the CWD "hotzone"....makes you wonder?

Lefty

[walking buffalo]

Originally Posted by Bushmaster

Red, I don't think she was trying to avoid me....she didn't even look my way until I got out to take the pic. Had a cow guy say that cows will do that somketimes when they are going to abort...??

And the snow has shrunk down enough in this field that she had room to run away if that was her motive...

Interesting....

Getting wet on purpose makes sense if the animal is running a fever.

[Lonnie]

water is alot warmer than freezing air. Ask any bever LOL

[fordtruckin]

My Lab does this in the early spring! just figured he was nuts

[AbAngler]

Originally Posted by fordtruckin

My Lab does this in the early spring! just figured he was nuts

Mine does in every mud puddle, all year. He IS nuts.

[walking buffalo]

Originally Posted by Lonnie

water is alot warmer than freezing air. Ask any bever LOL

+2 degree Water will cool a live deer a lot more than -20 degree air.

[Big Red 250]

I've see deer & moose head for a water hole and lay down in it, if they have been hit by a vehicle recently. Maybe the cold water dulls the pain.

[u_cant_rope_the_wind]

wish i had a better camera , Ive seen several deer and moose in this area doing the same thing this past week, the moose are all covered in ticks and allot of the deer are as well, this area is really bad for wood ticks but its way to early for wood tick season, maybe a tick or some other parasite problem happening

[Flyfisher87]

I would say fever more likely than ticks. I am originally from that area. I seen ticks more often in moose than deer though not uncommon. With the rapid cooling and warming of air temperatures it wouldn't take much for her and thousands of her kind to come down with a fever. Going by the picture (and my eyesight) she looks like a younger deer, in her first fawning year ( hopefully), the idea of her aborting isn't too far fetched given the hard accessibility of natural forage. If she was eating in a bale pen, she could have eaten too much clover ( which has been known to cause cows to abort depending on when it was baled up). Just a thought.