[gccs]

You just shine your headlights at them and they freeze. Spotlighting is illegal almost everywhere because if makes it so easy.

[hellbannedguy]

A deer had her babies this spring right in front of my window.

All day I noticed a deer checking out my yard. I had no idea she was looking for a safe spot to give birth.

I took a nap, and woke up to a wet fawn looking into the house.

It looked like she had the other one behind the fence.

My first instinct was she abandoned them, but I was completely wrong. She had her babies, cleaned them up, and she dissapears for a few hours. She does not want to bring any attention to her babies. Fawn don't have much of an odor when born, so it is to there benefit she isn't around except for feeding.

Every night she would return to her young. It was pretty amazing.

They slowly grew. The one by the window would only get up when mom came by--roughly 2x day. The babies are helpless to any predators. That is supposedly why the mom keeps them in different spots.

Anyways, they now just visit. It's a good feeling they are healthy, and seem happy.

[spiritplumber]

I'd take "This place looks super safe, I think I'll have my babies here" as a compliment!

[eps]

I remember reading in the news that at a native nation in Canada got themselves an exemption due to it being their "traditional way to hunt."

[lostlogin]

I had thought the issue was more one of governance rather than a claim of traditional practice?

The land is under shared management and one side decided to change the rules with insufficient consultation.

I am far from an authority on the subject and there may be more than one situation in play.

[cutemonster]

(I suppose spotlighting works only in the darkness?)

[devoutsalsa]

I had no idea.

[jfrunyon]

It's why deer-vehicle crashes are so common. Deer are pretty fast, and don't have any reason to stand in a road (there's nothing for them to graze, after all). But if they're crossing the road when you come along and your headlights suddenly blind their dilated eyes...

(By the way, their eyes are more like a cats, with pupils that can dilate far wider than a humans, so imagine a cop suddenly aiming a spotlight at you when it's pitch black - and then make it several times worse...)