Mule Deer Action

Visiting Badlands National Park to watch the mule deer rut is becoming a yearly event. Most of the behavior is bucks chasing does but occasionally things get real interesting. After watching a small herd for quite awhile I noticed the does had their attention directed to something behind the butte. Eventually I saw what the were watching. The following minute of action took place over about an hour in real time.

Testosterone on the Hoof

One ton of testosterone charged bison makes those roaring motorcycles and decked out trucks seem tame in comparison. This guy was in a frenzy after being turned down by several cows that were not quite ready for him.

Bison Battle 2

If you notice there is only one foot on the ground of the front bull. It gives me new appreciation for their power. The bulls were almost rabid in there behavior, very frightening.  The apparently slow moving, dull witted animals are entirely beasts in the rut.

Technical: 600 mm with 1.4 tele-extender, 1/800 second

Bison Battle

My wife and I (actually more me) have been searching for bison during mating season for years but we always seem to miss it. Badlands National Park has a good sized herd that is accessible and the Park is without the mayhem of summer visitors like Yellowstone. I made some calls and got conflicting information but decided to head out there anyway for a few days. This battle was taken one morning and by late afternoon 500 bison had disappeared. Mating season may still be in progress but if it is taking place it's a secluded draw. I don't think I'll hike in to look for them.

The Challenge

This young ram was smart and did not accept the challenge of the much bigger and older ram. Perhaps he had a headache from the last time he accepted the challenge. These guys were a side show to the main event happening above them.

Attack from Above

These rams have no rules, if one can be attacked it will be even from above. I guess in love and war (and perhaps politics) anything goes. Most wildlife sightings are from the road in Yellowstone and as you can hear I was not alone witnessing this spectacle. I was lucky to see multiple battles between rams from relatively close range.

Technical: focal length not always recorded but less than 900 mm most of the time using a set up of 100-400mm lens and 1.4 teleconverter on a C100 that has a crop factor.

Head Butt

I tried to catch this iconic action several times but always missed it because  the real action between mature rams above them was so intense. These guys were playing in there own sandbox while the big boys were sharing their genes. This is what you see on TV but in reality is not the focus of energy during the rut.

Technical: contact slowed to 25% real time

Shake that booty!

This was another interesting behavior I saw at Badlands NP. I have no idea why the buck did this and it shows another reason to be outdoors. Photographers see things that never will be on TV (too boring, no blood, etc.) and occasionally we get a chance to record what we see for others to enjoy.

Rejected Ram

 

This is another short piece from my recent trip to the Badlands. The purpose of the trip was to capture big horn rut activity and this is the closest I came to it. The iconic shot of big rams charging each other is a rare occurrence and most of the time the "bumps" are like this. It is also clear the ewe is not ready and is leading the rams around. She would stop to urinate, the rams would check it, then joust for dominance.

A great day

 

The goal each day when shooting video is a sequence with a beginning, middle, and end. When shooting stills it is a shot with great action, emotion, or light. I'm not sure which one is more elusive. This was a good day for video with the battling bucks being followed later in the morning with this sequence, not your average day.

Battle of the Bucks

By chance I witnessed this duel between four bucks during the  mule deer rut at it's peak last week.  Several other encounters were recorded, this is one of the more dramatic ones. I love the way the dominant buck comes in low as of sneaking up on the other buck. After a couple minutes it was all over and life went on. 

Technical: As with most videos the selection of background music is as time consuming as the video edit. Natural sounds was white noise: wind. 

The other rut

The elk rut gets the most attention because of their aggressive behavior in Mammoth. The other rut in September is more subtle but no less energetic with antelope bucks ripping sage and high speed chasing of rivals. Antelope are also more civilized and begin their activity well after sunrise.

Love is in the air

The big horn sheep rut is in full swing with rams competing for ewes. This shot seems more tasteful than the up close sniffing from behind that happens regularly. 

The Chase

I'm headed to Yellowstone for another attempt at recording big horn rams fighting for dominance. I went during the first week of December last year and the dominant ram had been selected so this rut behavior was the recorded. Hoping for better timing this week.

On Two Legs

This was captured off the video shown on yesterday's blog. With my wandering mind I associated the precarious balance of this guy with the polar bear's threatened status. Don't even try to guess how I find similarities between polar bears and whitetail deer. Perhaps its because I have been watching the antics of polar bears at Churchill in the morning on explore.org recently and deer in the park during the afternoon. 

Technical: Captured from Canon C100 footage @1/60 second. Yes, the hooves are clipped.

Busted

This is the last thing a wildlife videographer wants to record when filming deer behavior.  The buck's body language is fun to watch but hard to put into a story about the deer rut. The lens is white, manual focus is required, and tracking him through the woods are all movements that he may have keyed in on. I am covered in a bag blind so the only movement is the camera and my gloved left hand. In my experience deer with little hunting pressure are very curious. Archery hunting from fixed tree stands is allowed in the park with a 3 deer per hunter limit so there is some hunting pressure but also lots of deer. This area of the park doesn't have hunting so I am free to hunt with the camera.