Bulletin E-Edition:
more photosStartled when a young buck knocked his nubby antlers on her door Monday, Linda Stephenson snapped photos as he ambled toward a snack in her flower beds.
Submitted by Linda Stephenson
Bag of chips saves a buck in south Deschutes County
By Hillary Borrud / The Bulletin
Published: October 23. 2009 4:00AM PSTLike many teenagers, the youngster lurking in Linda Stephenson's yard and nursery earlier this week had a weakness for junk food.
Stephenson, 63, had watched him approach children getting off the school bus by her house on South Huntington Road near La Pine, and he always wanted food. He was so ravenous he recently ate through Stephenson's flower beds and the plants in her greenhouses.
On Monday, the young buck finally crossed the line when he walked up to Stephenson's door and knocked his developing antlers on her door.
Stephenson's call to the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office brought field law enforcement technician Jeremiah Johnson to the scene.
Johnson, 30, has gained a reputation within the Sheriff's Office for relocating wildlife. In July, actor Rainn Wilson, speaking on “The Late Show with David Letterman,” credited Johnson with capturing a rattlesnake Wilson had encountered while on vacation in Sisters.
Johnson's reputation was further helped along by his name, which he shares with the trapper, played by Robert Redford, in the 1972 film “Jeremiah Johnson.”
The Jeremiah Johnson at the Sheriff's Office is one of four technicians who responds to complaints about animals, said his supervisor, Lt. Gary Decker.
In this case, Johnson used potato chips to lure the buck into his truck, then drove the animal to an area where he had seen herds of deer.
Johnson, who grew up near Prineville and now lives in Sunriver, said he gets along well with animals.
“I've lived in the woods most of my life,” Johnson said. “When you live in the country, animals are just there.”
A knock at the door
Stephenson said she thought a person had knocked on her door early Monday morning.
“I was sitting in my chair at about 8 in the morning, and still had my robe on,” Stephenson said. In fact, it was the buck. “I got up and opened the door, and here was this deer. ... I shooed him off, and he went to stand on the lawn.”
Half an hour later, Stephenson went outside and headed toward her nursery.
“As I started to walk over, this fawn came up to me and he nudged me in the shoulder,” she said. Stephenson did not think the buck would hurt her, but the encounter was unnerving. “I came back in the house, and I was shaking.”
By the time Johnson arrived at Stephenson's house, the deer had left her yard, but Stephenson showed Johnson where the young buck had eaten her flowers and ravaged her greenhouse.
“That little culprit has been eating everything, going into our greenhouses, pulling pots off the shelves,” Stephenson said. “He's just been making himself at home, really causing a lot of damage. He's not as cute as you'd like to think he is.”
“It's destroying her (nursery) business, so you can't have that,” Johnson said.
Johnson decided to drive around the neighborhood in search of the deer.
“When I drove down this one road, it came running out of the bushes and went for my truck with that look like, ‘Feed me, feed me,'” Johnson said.
To keep the buck's interest, Johnson turned to the potato chips he had in his truck. They were a hit.
“It kind of liked them,” he said. The buck was 50 to 60 pounds, with only nubs of antlers. “I picked it up and set it in the back of my truck.”
Then, Johnson drove the buck to an area where he had seen herds of deer and released it. “Hopefully it will join up with one of them,” John-son said.
“I'm not going to kill the deer, because if you can take it out in the woods and put it somewhere else where it can be with other deer, everybody's happy, I guess,” Johnson said. “He was a nice little buck. I didn't want him to get shot.”
Steven George, Deschutes district wildlife biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, said ODFW would not consider this buck an aggressive animal, just a pest.
If the buck posed a threat to people, however, “it would be euthanized,” George said. “We've got so many people in Oregon, you can't really take something somewhere where it's not going to interact with humans.”
Johnson's unconventional method of apprehending the buck was OK, George said, but the animal might still find his way back to Stephenson's yard in the future.
“(Johnson) released it 10 miles away, which is OK,” George said. “A lot of times that doesn't work. ... We haven't heard anything from it yet. Time will tell what really happens with it.”
Humans might have befriended the buck
The fawn's comfort level with people probably results from it being fed or raised by people, George said.
When people feed fawns by hand, they think other people will feed them, and that leads to “the nudging and walking into houses,” George said. “It is illegal to pick up a fawn and raise it without being a licensed rehabilitator.
“They can at times be sort of a human safety threat, too,” George said. “So, for the safety of the deer and safety of people, we try to keep those with licensed rehabilitators so they can hopefully get them to the point where they can be released in the wild and still have some fear of people and ability to survive in the wild on their own.”
A woman who left a message at George's office recently expressed suspicion that someone in her area raised the deer, he said. People usually do not admit to feeding or raising young deer, however.
“I don't have any hopes at this stage that someone's going to jump up and admit to it,” George said. “We hear about it several times a year.”
Often, neighbors of the person raising the deer turn her or him in to authorities.
If people see someone who is not a licensed rehabilitator raising or feeding deer, they can contact ODFW in Bend at 541-388-6363.
Hillary Borrud can be reached at 541-617-7829 or at hborrud@bendbulletin.com.
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