A true tale: while I was hiking back to our pickup to get more film, my wife, Jene, suddenly found herself witnessing a battled between two big bucks. Pleased for the opportunity to photograph this battle, she stepped behind a big tree trunk and began snapping away. Finally forced to give significant ground and jump away to avoid injury, the buck on the right lost the battle. Soon thereafter, however, it spotted Jene and headed toward her. Before she realized what the buck was up to, it lowered its head and pressed is antlers against her chest. Knowing it would be extremely dangerous to push back or even touch those antlers in such a circumstance, she began backing away, all the while softly informing the buck she had no wish to fight, At one point it backed her into a fence but she managed to turn without putting pressure against those 10-point antlers and continued backing away. About five minutes later, the buck finally halted, raised its head and walked away, its ego doubtless restored.

It took a lot longer for Jene’s heartbeat to be restored.

Doc