They're Baaaaaack!

It's that time of year.  Time to start feeding the deer and put out our wildlife camera again.  Tom set up our deer feeding "station" a couple of weeks ago and it did not take long for the deer to find it.  After just a couple of days we were getting pictures of them every night.  There appear to be 3 or 4 that come regularly.  Generally, they come in groups of 2 or 3.

Sometimes they are alone at the feeder, but usually there are others close by.

Occasionally, they arrive before dark.  They really are beautiful animals.

This year there is one young buck that appears to have a hurt leg.  Notice in the following pictures how he always holds one hind leg off the ground.

We've observed this deer several times when he came to the feeder before dark.  He limps quite badly.  Perhaps he was hit by a car and injured.  My heart goes out to this poor creature and I wish I could help him.  But, my head tells me that this sort of thing is just part of the life cycle of these animals and I have to let "nature take its course".

At any rate, this got me to wondering how long deer usually live and I found the following interesting comment on a forum on the Field and Stream website:

http://www.fieldandstream.com/forums/hunting/how-old-do-deer-get

"We had several deer that were penned up over several periods during the last 50 years that we did studys on by the DNR that I worked for. The oldest that any buck lived was 12 years with ideal food and nutrition and the 12th year the buck was a disgusting sight to look at. The antlers were deformed spikes and the deer had nodlues all over its body. The does were mostly the same. 9 to 10 was mostly the longest the deer made it with ideal situations. I doubt that deer in the wild will live that long because as someone said their teeth will wear out before 10 years and they won't be able to eat. After 7 1/2 years of age the deer start to really go down hill fast. This was done in the mountains of WV here in the East. A study somewhere else in the US may give different results but I doubt that the results will vary greatly."