The only one time I actually talked to a scientist (in this case a Texas Parks & Wildlife biologist) who provided data that clearly had an agenda and that being as a paid speaker to come up with methods and ideas on mitigating our towns deer population at my local park advocacy meeting six months ago.
Only I had my own agenda in my line of questioning the biologist that centered around my 2 year relationship with a dominant female deer and her 3 offspring who likes me to dig in her ear and feed her peanuts. I kept asking what other foods I could give them and all of her answers were I was not to do this, peanuts build up toxins in deer digestive systems, corn has very few nutrients and protein, deer carry parasites, lime disease, etc. She was basically describing them almost as if they're considered as filthy vermin and dangerous.
Some of this info was conflicted with what I've seen with the four deer I've befriended. I even fact checked another park's ranger with a degree on a PBS Texas Parks And Wildlife program about white tail deer claiming it illegal to touch fawns because they have no scent and if a human puts their scent on them, the male deer will kill it.
The biologist told me that was a myth. It doesn't happen. OK, both officials are educated with a degree but one is wrong.
So the biologist was not interested in answering my questions on how to care for deer but only about reducing their population. I ended up doing my own research and buying a 50 pound bag of Sportsman's "Deer Nutrition" as an alternative to peanuts at my local feed & seed. It's mainly made up of soy protein and alfalfa meal. The deers devoured it out of my hands.
I learned on my own spending time with these deer that they are cleaner than the pets I helped raised including squirrels, raccoons, possums, cats and dogs. The deer's poop smells like freshly mowed grass, their ear wax doesn't smell like cats and dogs do, their saliva has no smell after the dominant female likes to lick my arm for 15 minutes as a way of putting her scent on me as her property and primary food provider.
