Face-Off

Another slight rewind....looking at pictures from a project that is ongoing back in North Carolina.  This project began in June of 2010 and will end some time in May of this year (about the time Dave graduates, seeing as he is still there to keep track of the cameras).

Because my last post was focused on some cool behaviors caught on one of the cams....here's another example.

I'm always alittle shocked that I don't get pictures of this sort of thing more often.

Male white-tailed deer in rut have a tendency to get after eachother.  I'd gotten some interesting shots of this back in 2010...which included an individual with a bizarre rack and another one that appeared to be afflicted with fibromas (see here).

This was the last bit of brawling I'd caught pictures of until early December of 2011.

The property is full of deer and this camera site, in particular, had seen substantial doe activity as of late (there were over 550 pictures of wildlife over the course of a few weeks...mostly of does).

So it should come as no big surprise that the bucks also come sniffing around this spot as well.

It took a while, but finally it happened that two testosterone-filled males were trying to occupy the same space at the same time. 

...and that just doesn't fly....

First, they size eachother up (you can barely see the eyeshine of the second male on the right-hand side of the picture).

Next...they square-off.....

...and they clash....

...and square-off again.....

...a big push.....

...and the two tumble out of view to the left.....