Deer Prudence

Last night I headed out from my room to the "general store" at the Banff Centre. I had a less than thrilling day -- most recently, I had discovered that the phone in my room reeked of beer.

When I opened the door to the building, I saw two deer grazing not fifteen feet away. Suddenly my mood improved. I continued on to the store. I figured that the deer would be gone by the time I got back. Instead, there were now three deer. I rushed back to my room, dropped off my purchases, and grabbed my camera. When I came out, there was an employee talking to someone. I walked past him to take a picture of the deer (there were now two). The employee then advised me that it was safer to take the pictures behind glass.

He said that the deer ordinarily would just run away, but when they were in an enclosed space, they might just try to run through you. He said they knew what [pretends to aim gun] meant, and it was pretty similar to [pretends to aim camera].

As I headed inside to take the second picture below, I heard him say to the other guy, "Of course, back in the Yukon, we get a deer this close, it's dinner time."