Richmond Park

This is the Park that is about 1/2 mile form our house. It is many hundreds of acres of everything, trails, roads, woods. There are bike paths, horse, paths, running paths, playgrounds, huge fields etc.etc. It was a former hunting ground for the Royal families, and the animals left are protected. As a result, there are these huge herds of Red and Fallow Deer. This is where I run most days. Not being a deer naturalist, I have learned a lot through the fall! As I was coming over a ridge one day, I came upon a huge herd with 1 VERY LARGE male.(like the picture I have put in) Off in the distance was another male that all the others were walking away from. As I continued on, I came over another ridge to find a HUGE lone deer sitting just off the running path. As I got closer, he stood up and lowered his horns at me. I racked my brain from years of Animal Planet .."what do you do when deer attack?" I had no idea. There wasn't much room, there were other people in the distance, I could see the headlines..."American Gored by Deer", I knew I couldn't out run him. In the end, I just kept a steady pace, gave him as much berth as I could on the path and kept going. he tracked me with his antlers, but let me pass. The NEXT day, there were all sorts of signs posted about "aggressive deer" in the fall rutting season. According to my expert advisor(Carroll Thomas), by the time you seem a male alone in the Fall, he has lost a few battles and is NOT a happy guy. Today will be my first day running since "the cull" started. Not sure what I will find today...but I WILL stay on the main drag and not venture off into the woods!