Kilimanjaro Report post Posted July 28, 2004 Today, I was working down south of Arivaca off of Tres Bellotas rd. At about 2pm,I was sitting on the side of a hill glassing for illegals. Of course I was also looking for big bucks too!!! Anyway, I saw this stock tank about 500 yards away and began to glass around it just for the heck of it. There happened to be 2 coues does down there at the waters edge. I bagan to watch them and I saw something that I had never seen before. They would get into the knee deep water and begin jumping around in the middle of the tank like bucking horses!! They would run full tilt into the tank and spin around and around! They would jump sraight up and see who could make the biggest splash! They would chase each other around the tank and then they would both bounce into the middle. They did this for about 30 minutes.I think they were just happy to see a little bit of water in the region. It was quite amusing to say the least! They reminded me of a couple of baby goats the way they were playing. Have any of you ever seen this type of humorus behavior in deer before. It was something that made my day. Scottyboy Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CouesWhitetail Report post Posted July 28, 2004 Great sighting! Too bad you didn't video tape it! It reminds me of a time I was hunting with some friends and after some rain moved through it seemed that this group of bucks was just playing. They would run around, not fighting, but just seemingly enjoying the cooler wet weather. And I have seen elk frolic in water holes like you saw. Amanda Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
az4life Report post Posted July 28, 2004 Wow There are different things that we can see almost every time we venture into the wild. You just saw something pretty rare I bet. Sounds neat and I do wish we had a tape of it, but thanks for painting us a verbal picture. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KGAINES Report post Posted July 28, 2004 I seen two mule deer does do almost the exact same thing in the verde river between bartlett and horshoe lakes, the were running into the water and jumping around for around fifteen minutes, this was just after sunrise. I was about two hundred yards away fishing, they finally just wandered off. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bullwidgeon Report post Posted July 28, 2004 Yes I have seen them do that. It is cool when they do that. My uncles used to hunt near a tank in the Catalinas and one of them shot a buck swimming in the tank one afternoon on the early hot October hunt. The buck came down and got a drink and decided to go for a swim, if my uncle was thinking he would have waited but just could not resist.. They had to go swimming to get him out. This year in NM unit 15 I was hunting turkeys and set up on a tank a gobbler had been coming to and right at first light a herd of 13 elk cows and yearlings came in and a few of the yearlings went to "boxing" and splashing each other in the middle of the tank. It was pretty cool to watch but it kept the gobbler from coming in. Bret M. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
azcouesandelk Report post Posted July 28, 2004 That is really neat. I have seen elk do tha at Willow Springs before, but never a deer. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
