ENVR 2 deer on the freeway in downtown Seattle.

Great Northwet

Great Northwet

Veteran Member
I'll try to put the link in first: Deer spotted on I-5 express lanes in Seattle

There are 7 ways to get into the city. All of them require a bridge to travel over water. There is a lot of water here. There are a lot of bridges here to help with the crossings. My guess is that they swam in the lake to get here.

But this is different . A deer in the middle of a city of our size is different. My guess is that smelled stuff-probably garbage .

I'll have more thoughts about this soon enough. All responses appreciated.
 
jward

jward

passin' thru
I look fwd to your future updates.
You might alter your title to read "seattle" instead of "deattle" : )
 
patriotgal

patriotgal

Veteran Member
Saw a deer and a little car collide on I-40 once. Parts of car and animal were flung far and wide. Driver somehow survived.
 
TerriHaute

TerriHaute

Hoosier Gardener
Great Northwet said:
I'll try to put the link in first: Deer spotted on I-5 express lanes in Seattle

There are 7 ways to get into the city. All of them require a bridge to travel over water. There is a lot of water here. There are a lot of bridges here to help with the crossings. My guess is that they swam in the lake to get here.

But this is different . A deer in the middle of a city of our size is different. My guess is that smelled stuff-probably garbage .

I'll have more thoughts about this soon enough. All responses appreciated.
Click to expand...
Deer are herbivores, they don't eat garbage. Deer in metropolitan areas are not that unusual especially if there are parks with ponds in the area. It's pretty woodsy around St. Mark's in that part of Seattle, so they possibly came from there. Deer can jump surprisingly high fences. If they were spooked by something, they may have jumped a fence where I-5 is at or near ground level.

My nephew lives in urban Columbus, Ohio, not far from the Ohio State campus. There is a large city park a few blocks from his house. Every year, the deer eat his hostas and other landscape plants. He restores the landscaping with different plants, attempting to thwart them, every year. The deer are a common sight in his neighborhood at dusk or sunrise. In the older neighborhood where he lives, the houses are close together, you can stand between them and touch two different houses at the same time.
 
CaryC

CaryC

Has No Life - Lives on TB
If you want to see dead deer go up I65, especially during deer season. They are everywhere. Dead. And it gets worse when you get off at Elizabethtown and head west to Ft. Knox.

Deer swim rivers all the time. Depending on what all is going on. They will swim a river at flood stage with no problems or fear.

And there is no telling why they ended up in a city. Low on food source on home turf. Crowding, once to many deer get in an area, they will just naturally, move. Something blocked their way home, after a night out. They have no maps to tell them: up ahead is a city.

I wouldn't think it was a dog, maybe wolves (?). The reason, does when pursued by dogs run in large circles. Which that circle may include a river, IF the river is within their normal range. Bucks on the other hand run in straight lines. Generally.

There is also the idea in deer that if their ranging ground is covered in people/dogs during the day, and they cross a river/creek (boundary land line) and be peaceful and quite, they will cross.

Having deer in a big city is nothing unusual in itself. But as was mentioned they didn't do it for garbage. What is unusual is seeing them up and about this time of year, in the day time.

My guess is they got pushed out of their home range by something, 4 wheelers, bulldozers, hikers, etc. Then may have got pushed further out by running into a road and cars where honking at them, now they are in unfamiliar territory, and just doing what they can to survive.

Just guessing, or they could have been moving out of CA, and took a wrong turn.
 
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