Honestly curious question here:

What’s more scary to a deer: people on mountain bikes or dog walker with dogs all off leads? One was some enormo-husky type breed too.

I ask as this was the rationale for fc ‘ranger’ (unpaid volonteer for FC) being rather cross (and that is a rather english understatement of how she described him) with mrs julian for moving the rather dangerous logs he had placed over one of the rather less official trails in our local woods. He said he had been burying/blocking the trails over concerns for the deer being frightened off.

fwiw the trail in question is 300 yards away from the ‘proper’ designated mountain bike area. I’m not sure anyone has told the deer this. Are bikes really scarier than dogs to them?

Deer are scared of everything – that’s how they are wired-up.

As dogs are a natural deer predator, and bikes are just something odd to run away from then I suspect dogs are scarier.

I see lots of deer when riding – many just jump off the trail when they see/hear me coming and then stand in the bushes watching me ride past. If you come up on them quicker then they’re obviously more spooked.

I accidentally stalked a deer at the weekend… following an old over-grown trail and the marks of “someone” in the vegetation, only to catch up with the someone and discover it was quite a large deer 🙂

Dog chase deer, bikes don’t.

Bikes pass through

Dogs and owners not so quickly

TDeer are sure scared of a rifle…but they taste oh so good….I would say scared of dogs more than bikes…but honestly, what does it matter? Deer will run from anything.

Report the actions of the ‘worker’ to the FC. I’ll bet it’s not sanctioned and he’ll get a bo11ocking for it. Tw4t.

Tell him that if anyone sustains a serious injury (or dies) then he is personally liable and you will be publicizing his actions within the wider mtb community so they can apportion blame in the event of a crash due to sabotage.

Deer will bolt at the sight or sound of anything remotely threatening. As someone above has said, bikes don’t chase deer, dogs do.

Report the actions of the ‘worker’ to the FC. I’ll bet it’s not sanctioned and he’ll get a bo11ocking for it. Tw4t.

A kind friend/trail pixie who has a good realationship with the proper warden is already on the case.

I don’t really mind unsanctioned trails getting trashed by the FC. It is of course their wood. What worries me is:

1) that they are trashed in such a way that some kid will come hooning round a corner and hurt themself on a 10″ log laid perperendicularly across the trail by someone that sort of works there. If they blame it on militant dog walkers then hey ho, but you have to accept that making trails more dangerous is not the way to stop them being built or used. The trail in question is one of the least challenging or technical of the great many in this wood.

2) that in ‘protecting’ deer from mountain bikers, the 3 dogs wandering around off leads whilst the ‘ranger’ buries the trail scare them off even more.

3) that approaching 2 women mountainbikers in a state of quite some agitation at 8.30pm in an isolated wood does not do much for the image of the Commission.

you sure he was actually an FC employee and not some anti-cyclist trying to sound important?

regardless, scaring the deer is the most ridiculous excuse I’ve ever heard.

Any deer I see when I’m out cycling totally crap themselves for about 1 second then carry on munching so I’d say dogs are much worse.

I bet that getting dog poo in their hoofs annoys them as well 😆

unpaid volonteer for FC

I’d be a bit suss of those credentials, but assuming he was doing it “properly” (i.e. blocking the entrance and exit of a trail, not just putting them in on blind corners, at the bottom of steep descents etc) it may be worth having a word with your real FC ranger and explaining your concerns.

as above deer are scared of anything, although no annimal (except bizzarely crows IME?) is scared of rifels (they tend not to have a chance to learn).

Howevery they also seem inteligent/stupid enough to get over fear and become inquisitive. Stand there long enough and a deer will come over and check you out.

Ohh and deer “stalking” is a made up sport. If you want to see/get close to deer just stand still and make deer noises for a couple of minutes, either that or sit out of sight at dusk neer water, ever wondered what those plastic chairs nailled to trees 3m off the ground are for? It’s to shoot deer as they walk past!

assuming he was doing it “properly” (i.e. blocking the entrance and exit of a trail, not just putting them in on blind corners, at the bottom of steep descents etc)

entrance, exit and many middly bits are covered with evergreen branches from recent-ish thinning/felling, logs are not particularly well hidden and start about 50 yards into the trail (which is about 500m long i suppose). Its got to be a good 2 hours work for one bloke to cover it up. (It was much much longer than that for my pixying friends and I to clear the path and ride it in)

Its not more than 50 yards away from a well established path that dogwalkers use. Oh and i suppose his three dogs will have had a good run around while he was beavering away there.

I’m pretty sure he is some sort of volonteer ‘ranger’: I certainly know of a couple of other blokes that are in our woods.

I suppose the ‘making an easy trail dangerous or unrideable’ is annoying, but what gets my goat really is the idea that cyclists who smell of human and stick to the trails are more concerning to the local fauna than a dog walker who also smells of human, plus his dogs who smell of dog, wee on trees, wander off the trails and get very curious about other animals.

I would be far more worried about some of the frankly ludicrous downhill lines, doubles and drops all of 500m away from the ‘frightened deer zone’. Which i am always finding deer on in the evenings and early mornings anyway…