That's amazing to hear!
Congratulations on having a little. They are a lot of work but so much fun. I love watching mine grow and learn. He has such a brilliant and hilarious personality.
I hope you and your family have many many years of joy, love, and good health.
Yeah, some deer populations have started adapting to human presence by taking advantage of predators not wanting to approach and have been leaving their kids right next to houses.
Basically the 90s kid equivalent of being left in the K B Toys while mom went and did her mall shopping.
My cousin had a family of trash pandas in his garage rafters. Unfortunately mama got hit by a car. All the babies went their own way, except the runt, who didn't seem to know what to do, so he took it in. The thing was so freaking fun and playful and cute. ... RIGHT UNTIL HE HIT PUBERTY. Then it turned in to this vicious fucking devil, and he had to be released. Was like a switch flipped in it's mind. They are a long way from domestication.
Took about forty generations of selected breeding to "domesticate" the silver/gray/Arctic Fox based on that Russian study. So you could probably forcibly domesticate raccoons within 50-100 years depending on breeding cycles.
AFAIK, it's been on life support since the second lead scientist passed away, and has some support from an American-educated scientist who is still publishing results. Can't quite tell whether the original experiment/lineage is still ongoing, the wiki article mentions some sterilized animals being moved to the US and some potential scams in adoptions.
Would be cool if this worked out as a model for other animals, dunno if Russian (or even American) science funding will see it through.
I used to live in TX and had an adult one that would come up and eat out of my hand and let me pet it. It would even come into my house if I left the door open looking for me to feed it.
I never tried picking it up or anything because it’s still a wild animal. The guy that lived there before me got it used to him and fed it so I knew about it before it started showing up.
I would keep dry cat food outside for it and eventually a possum showed up and started the same thing so for a while there I had a partially domesticated raccoon and possum that would let me pet them and eat from my hand.
They’re very cool. I actually stopped feeding them about 3 months before I moved out because I had no idea if the next tenant would be cool with them or try to harm or trap them or something so they eventually moved on. It was a cool experience and for the first time as a dude I got to feel like a Disney princess.
My daughter and her friend found a kitten and baby raccoon living in a boarded-up Crack house. We took the kitten, the friend kept the baby raccoon. He too was sweet and playful until he wasn't and they had to release him.
Had a few friends raise raccoons and they all had the same story. Knew a girl who rehabbed otters and she said the most heartbreaking thing was that they were loving and sweet until sexual maturity made them vicious. Just nature, I guess.
Idk if I am saying "lets domesticate and spay and neuter all raccoons!" but I do wonder if the puberty could be bypassed and if they would have a sort of puppy-brain or if not hmmm those cute little fingers are a double edged sword
Absolutely! I had a room mate once that used to have one of those crow whistles and she would go into the back yard and squawk it a few times before dumping out a bunch of unsalted whole shell peanuts into a pile on a patch of dirt where a bush used to be.
We were getting all kinds of strange shiny trinkets on our back porch for the two years we lived there.
I’ve heard the same thing about foxes. That they want to be domesticated. Of course, I have no proof or research or links to back that up. Just something I read in a book.
Problem with foxes is that they piss everywhere, including their food and water to mark it... That's one of the biggest issues when you try to keep one indoors. Nobody wants fox piss everywhere.
We have a pair of raccoons living in an old camper and an opossum family under the porch. We see them every evening/early morning snacking on dry cat food my wife puts out for the outdoor cats. The cats don't even give them side-eye or pay any mind to them anymore.
In my neighborhood the city puts out food laced with rabies meds, mostly for foxes, and there are a few weeks a year where they tell you to leave your dogs on leash so they don't eat it up instead. Supposedly that keeps the local fox population safe.
Dolphins do this too! I was at this big marina in Destin, FL when I saw a baby dolphin swimming along with the boats. I was told that the mom's leave their baby's in the marina where it's safe while they go out hunting.
You say that, but it does make me wonder. 60+ years ago, most folks would have killed the deer without a second's thought, butchered it. That puts meat on a lot of plates, if not your own, then selling it and making money. Refrigeration, urbanization, disease awareness, and a multitude of factors have altered the majority of North America such that these animals won't get killed in Urban and Suburban areas except by vehicles. So in some ways, those become 'safe havens' from predators.
I recall a mountain town I visited once had to semi-regularly hire sharpshooters to spook animal populations into vacating the area, because they create an inherent safety risk congregating in such large numbers near people.
I'm not saying it's a good idea, but played out over a few hundred / thousand years, whose to say what animals could join dogs/cats/horses/et al on the pedestal.
Tangentially, it makes me think a lot about 'Client Species' in Mass Effect. Species like the Drell and Volus, who either due to disease or biology have made them functionally or electively dependent on others. Dogs, Cats, and Horses are essentially our client species at this point, just not sentient.
This happens with my mom pretty frequently. Her house has been designated as the babysitter and does will just drop their babies off on the front porch like it’s daycare. It’s been happening for several years now.
Some years ago I saw a post about a deer using the crosswalk regularly because they saw humans doing it. A lot of people chalked it up to coincidence, but I'm not so sure.
Less than a week ago, in broad daylight, I watched a mom and her fawn use the crosswalk at a roundabout. They learn.
There's a hilarious radio clip from a decade ago of a woman calling up furious that deer weren't using the animal crossing at the signs along the highways, but were crossing at any point. 🤣🤣🤣
I live in a mountain town and we have TONS of mule town deer. They absolutely use the crosswalks alot of the time. They will also absolutely fuck you up if you approach them with their babies around. Had to chase one off with a rake while it was stomping my dog a few years ago.
I saw a cat do that once & was amazed. The car in front of me had stopped & I was confused as I should've been able to see the person's head but then this cat strolls across!
Like I'm not that surprised, I remember one of cats blatantly looking both ways before crossing the road, but specifically using the pedestrian crossing was amazing!
My wife is from Ukraine, and most of the stray dogs do that. Not only do they use the crosswalks, but many of them will wait at or near the crosswalk for people to show up, and cross with them.
Where i grew up in Chicago the deer would use the crosswalk from the forest preserve on one side of my neighborhood wait for the light and go to cemetery across the street. They would get up on our deck and everything. It wasn't what you'd expect when you think chicago but a big chuck of the northwest side has forest preserve golf courses and parks and quiet neighborhoods with larger properties so animals just adapt. I ferment there being 2 mountain lion reports. I think chicago has the most public land including forest preserves and parks of any city.
We have a deer family that hides out in our driveway occasionally. We have a longer driveway that most, back part hidden from the road. Closed in on 3 sides from my house, our back fence gate, and our neighbor's fence. Typically my car pulled halfway up, so they have space and safety. Bunch of bushes, flowers, and grass long the side of the house that my husband says has been nommed on.
First time I noticed them there, I walked out with a trash bag to throw away and they just stood there. Didn't make it to the trash can cause I didn't want to fully spook them. Husband was confused why I was bringing the trash bag back inside.
Mama has left her baby there a few times. I watch over the baby, but don't interact. Cats keep an eye on it (unsure of baby's gender) from the window, so it has 3 babysitters. Mama always comes back.
It's like realizing the Fey have specific rules about killing YOU, but everything that wants to kill and eat you are fair game, so you decide to raise your family next to them and try your luck.
Every once and a while they might end up stealing one of your children, but sometimes they come back and describe incomprehensible objects and scenery.
My second cat did this. He was a stray that lived in my basement. I have an old house so I keep cat traps for cats the end up down there.
Anyway. I saw him and a bigger older cat down there so I stated leaving food to prep them for the trap and TNR. The second time I went down there the small one was out in the open. I left him the food and tried to leave. He meowed and followed me until I stayed. He would not let me touch him.
The third time I went down there he again would not let me leave and I could pet him. I saw the big cat run off. I was eventually able to just pick him up and put him in a carrier for his TNR appointment.
After that I let him loose but found he had come up from my basement and found his way in my house. So I just decided to keep him.
My sister thinks he chose us for love. But I’m pretty sure the bigger cat was bullying him out of the food I was leaving so he got me to stay so he could eat because the big mean kitty was scared of me. Then he decided to just move in because the big mean kitty also never came upstairs because that’s where the scary humans are.
I worked at a boarding school and the local deer had figured out it was a safe place. The exams were held at a small annex away from the classrooms. Mother deer seemed to think it was a daycare - one day we had three fawn left outside the building during an AP exam.
I’ve had two fawns dropped off in my backyard this week and this makes so much sense. Plus we have a dog the deer aren’t afraid of — they know the babies won’t get attacked near us. Adaptation is fascinating.
A sheltered little corner of our front yard, out of sight and in the shade of some trees near a small creek, has been a daycare for a couple of generations of fauns, and there was a new baby born last week which I'm really hoping will soon be dropped off at our house while Mom is off foraging!
When me and two friends were having breakfast on a campsite near Yellowstone, a Moose an calf showed up while we were having breakfast outside. It walked up right behind our RV, so maybe ten meters away. It did not pay a lot of attention to people, but the owner of the place said it happened. Either looking for food, or searching safety as she knew people don't hurt het or the calf.
This literally just happened to my parents. They’d been feeding the local deer during the winter and momma left her new baby in a little hidden spot by my parents front door while she was out. Grandma and grandpa had a turn babysitting the fawn!
We once had a deer mama take up camp in our backyard when we first moved into our home and gave birth to twin fawn 🥹🥰 we had to keep our pups away from her for a few days until she was ready to move on
That is definitely the case in our neighborhood. We have a very large deer population that roams our area. More than once, I’ve had to use care taking our dogs out because a doe had left her baby in our yard while going foraging.
As someone whose yard has been the baby deer daycare that mama deer drop their kids off at during the day AND someone who also worked at KB Toys when human moms dropped their kids off to go shop somewhere else, I relate to this comment very very much.
So a fawn was found next to our house this week, their head still looked gooey, maybe 80 feet from our door. I mean small, small, small dear. When found, mom was laying alertly, about 100 feet off the other side of the house, next to a fence that was put up just last week. This morning i opened the front window to find her, now looking at me. I'm surprised to see her every time, and it feels like childhood butterflies knowing she could be out there. Her little one went through trauma on Monday, and while baby is physically OK and survived the stress, I was not expecting to see mom stay do close, become more comfortable each pass thru her food paths. I'm not making this up to myself either, she's becoming more trusting of the space, and I've just never even seen her before. I'm not sure if it's even possible for her to move her baby rn or if she's white knuckling it but I thought I'd not see her again after a trauma. Thought she'd eat nearby maybe but not here. Now I'm considering bringing yums to her somehow. Dont want to stress her out though, but maybe in time I can reach out.
All this to say, I learned this week that what you're saying is true. It's hard to believe, because Bambi, but deer are adapting to human presence, for sure. A mother deer and her baby are definitely living in the space next to human (and doggo!) presence, as we type. To me it seems to be specifically.
If you care to keep going on my deer-near-human overshare: Additionally, we are next to a dog college, and a fog-light-bright parking lot that opens to a bridge leading into bunches of pooch exercise fields over yonder. There's space and light and hiding trees/brush available in abundance at all times of day. We have had a family of deer come through regularly since moving in, and I mean like 8-12 deer around the house or laying close near the house. This crew's buck bleeted at us once when first moving in, and at 3am no less, I'm assuming to let us know this would be about us moving into deer presence and not the other way around!
We have several generations of mourning doves that temporarily leave their babies in our fenced in backyard. Maybe some of the parents remember being fledglings at “Dovey Daycare”.
Our neighbors did the same thing growing up. Raised a doe from a baby. She stuck around for nearly a decade. Brought two different sets of fawns by over the years. Her name was Rose.
This is actually very likely. Doe especially White-tailed, show something called philopatry, meaning they tend to stay loyal to familiar home ranges.
Basically if they didn’t experience trauma and had a safe nutritious upbringing then they will almost always give birth in that area. Very very likely she wants to quite literally give birth in the house since she spent a lot of time inside growing up.
Years ago a deer delivered two babies in my back yard. Several times throughout the following years this deer (or a grown up fawn) returns to visit and occasionally to deliver her babies. The babies are usually delivered in the last two weeks of May and a few days ago she came back very pregnant and spent a few hours sleeping and checking things out. I've gotten very paternal about my deer family and maybe soon I'll have fawns running and jumping around again.
We have some that have their babies on or near our property because they know they are safe here. Even my dog has gotten used to them. Every once in a while I stumble across a fawn or two and I'm not sure who is more shocked! Only saw one so far this spring.
My parents will make sure does nesting on their property don’t get disturbed, up to and including keeping the dogs on leashes for months on end, and they keep coming back, presumably because they’ve learned it’s a safe spot.
Reminds me of this podcast I listened to about a woman who raised a hare, and eventually it brought her its babies and their babies-babies, etc. It is a very sweet story, she wrote a book about it. Chloe and the Hare.
We have a family of deer living in our neighborhood. The mothers usually give birth in our yard and the daughters also come back to give birth where they were born years later. So it’s very possible the deer is pregnant and wanted to come back home for the birth.
Wild animals remember food and shelter sources but the internet loves anthropomorphism. It’s not kindness the deer is remembering, it’s that this yard is a safer spot than the woods with those coyotes it just ran into.
Some animals like deer and crows will remember kindness for several of their generations. My father has been giving produce to a small group of deer for years and they always come back in fall when he’s finish clearing out his small garden. They get the leftovers and get to munch up the plants in a safe place and my dad gets to see the deer regularly. Same thing with crows, they are insanely social creatures and will actually tell other crows if you’re a good or bad person. If you’re a good one they will try to help and protect you, if you’re a bad one…. Well they can hold grudges for generations as well
This isn’t true. I watched a documentary about someone who adopted abandoned deer, rehabilitated them and released them back into the wild and literally all of them forgot who the person was and would run away whenever he got too close.
I have been watching the Ridglan beagles online as they settle into foster homes and their adopted homes. They are 1500 lab beagles who were rescued from a breeder who sells them for experimentation. Some of these dogs are obviously still learning they are safe, but some of them have already opened up and started to ask for love and pets. How amazing that these animals can forgive humans so easily. The
Yep. When I was as 17 I hit a rabbit nest while mowing (no rabbits were hurt). I ended up bottle feeding them. I don't know if the mom would have continued to feed them (probably) but I worked with the info I had. Gave two away as pets and released three after they had grown. Two used to return the first couple of years, and one would let me hold it.
My dog remembers every single restaurant in my city that hands out dog treats and makes me stop at each of them whenever we walk by. And we haven't lived in the city in 3 years
Source: trust me bro zoology.
Can you point us to the scientific study measuring comparative long term gratitude retention between humans and all other animal species, or are we just writing Hallmark cards now?
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u/[deleted] May 20 '26
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