White Tailed Deer in the snow at Cades Cove

Please click here for the full post of these photographs with the story and to leave comments.

The top photo has been used in this greeting card, but can be used in any card.

Deer in the snow at Cades Cove one cold March day

Please click here for the orginal post and to leave comments

at Leedra's Photos For Fun.

Deer in Cades Cove

For more photos please visit the original post at Leedra's Photos For Fun.

Cades Cove White Tailed Buck with antlers mostly gone.

These are the last photographs of this buck. His antlers were so interesting to me.

You can check out antler information at http://www.buckmasters.com/bm/Resources/Articles/tabid/135/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/1172/Antler-Growth-and-Formations.aspx

As I have said before, the deer at Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park are not afraid of people. Just not allowed to touch them.

I actually got between the buck and doe,

because I did not know the buck was behind me to begin with.

From the last photograph you can see how well they blend with the environment around them, which makes it hard to see them sometimes.

Buck following his doe at Cades Cove

This buck was following the 2nd doe in this previous post.He stood very still, as if to say I could photograph him all day.
Although he didn't move during all of these photos, I am posting several because I was moving around and the antlers are showing differently due to the light.

I have never see the antlers at this stage, so it was very interesting to me.

Actually can see blood.

This link http://www.buckmasters.com/bm/Resources/Articles/tabid/135/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/1172/Antler-Growth-and-Formations.aspx has information about deer antlers.

I have some more photographs of this same buck I will also be posting.

White Tailed Deer in Cades Cove

Like a polite deer should, she closed her mouth for the 2nd photo.

The last 2 are a different deer, and she actally turned around for me.

These were very close too. Just another indication of the tameness of the deer in Cades Cove. Also, you can see we got a tease of a snow. Nothing to write home about.

Deer in Cades Cove next to Methodist Church

Deer in Cades Cove early morning

A man from Germany had just asked me about deer in the area when these deer came out of the woods to the right of the field we had been photographing. These were taken a short distance into Cades Cove in the Smokies this past Tuesday morning. Labor Day I photographed a Sandhill Crane in this same field. According to the reference books I checked the Sandhill should not have been in Cades Cove. Several birding bloggers Ecobirder and Lynne both verified from the photograph it was indeed a Sandhill Crane and left some good information about the Sandhill on that post.

Last of the elk photos Cataloochee Cove - GSMNP

I like these 3 photographs the best of all the elk photographs I took while we were at Cataloochee Cove, especially the last one.

Some more information to go with the earlier post with Elk information. Elk once roamed the southern Appalachain Mountains and elsewhere in the eastern United States. They were eliminated from the region by over-hunting and loss of habitat. The last elk in North Carolina was believed to have been killed in the late 1700s.

In Tennessee, the last elk was killed in the mid 1800s. By 1900, the population of elk in North America dropped to the point that hunting groups and other conservation organizations became concerned the species was headed for extinction.

I hope you have enjoyed the photographs and information about the elk in the Smokies.

Grazing elk Cataloochee Cove - GSMNP