Nature: The Private Life of Deer

From PBS - Just a century ago, there were less than a million deer in North America. Today, there are nearly 30 million. No wonder it seems they’re moving in right down the block. Nowhere are the deer more at home than in the suburbs. Whitetailed deer live in the boundaries, where our backyards meet the backwoods, and the woodlands meet the roads. From our kitchen windows we spot them, nibbling away at our gardens and shrubs. But how well do we know our neighbors from the natural world? Not very well at all, as it turns out. New investigations into their world reveal a more complex society than we imagined. These are smart, adaptable creatures, with impressive skills, senses and family lives, yet they also have unexpected shortcomings. Their famous “deer in the headlights” immobility, for instance, is not caused by fear at all, but rather by bright light overpowering their visual cortex and locking down their brains for a period of up to several minutes. Also among these extraordinary creatures are some exceptional rarities, such as the tiny endangered Key deer that captivate the residents of the Florida Keys, and the spellbinding white ghost deer that roam the northern woods.