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Thursday, May 22, 2008

Drought, Deer and Mountain Lions


During our fieldwork this morning on the near side of Tortugas Mountain, Research Associate Becca and I saw two mule deer. This is the closest to residential areas that we've seen deer in a long while. Undoubtedly, they are searching for water in this time of severe drought.
The problem with deer being this close to the city is that they often bring mountain lions with them; deer are a natural prey of lions. A week ago in the city of Las Cruces a pet dog was killed by a small cougar (aka mountain lion). These two particular deer took one look at Becca and decided it was probably wise to mosey along.

1 comment:

Matthew said...

The ears on those deer are amazing. I hope they didn't get teased in school. Maybe they wore big hats to cover them up during class.

What kind of camera do you use to get these great photos?

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