The Deer Quartet

To get you in the mood, listen to this video while you read the rest of this post. It is Martin Nystrom’s As the Deer played by the NewWin4 String Quartet:

There are four species of deer in the Pantanal, all food for jaguars! The Pampas Deer is very similar to the American White-tailed Deer, but smaller.

The males were still growing this year’s antlers:

The does, of course, have no antlers.

When they are scared they raise their small tail in imitation of their North American cousins, though I never did get one to do this for my camera. This one is running from a nearby jaguar, but the cattle tyrant on its back is still hanging on.

There are two small species of Brocket Deer, shy solitary woodland creatures. This is the Brown Brocket Deer (also called Grey):

The male has tiny spiky antlers:

Its cousin is this a male Red Brocket Deer.

It was with its mate and a tiny fawn, and our vehicle separated them on opposite sides of the road. The fawn inspected us warily:

The largest deer in the Pantanal is the Marsh Deer, 1.2m tall and 2 long. It likes long reeds and grasses, with just the head rising above the marsh:

Out in the open their size is more apparent, towering over the egret and the kiskadee in the foreground.

Meanwhile, back here in Maine, we have only one species, the White-tailed Deer. A doe and two still-spotted fawns were caught on my game camera two weeks ago. Notice how long their black-and-white tails are compared to the Pampas deer. (I fear that to watch the whole video and see the charming fawns you may have to scroll back up and turn the music off. )

If the music is still playing, relax and let it soothe your spirit.