Oh deer

January 12, 2023 11:02 PM

Deer sniffing a compost pile to get high.

Speculation is that nitrous oxide or perhaps some other "catnip" is causing them go kick up their heels.
Via JS Project Wild.

posted by blue shadows (13 comments total)

I have a small compost tumbler. I "kicked up my heels" this morning to find that it had "activated". It was 20 degrees warmer than the surrounding air. (Decomposition creates heat; heat fuels decomposition. It's a "circle of life" thing.) Nature is beautiful.
posted by SPrintF at 11:17 PM on January 12, 2023 [2 favorites]

Have the neighbourhood's teenagers started gathering there yet?
posted by Paul Slade at 12:21 AM on January 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

All I can think of on hearing this is the moral panic about jenkem some years ago.
posted by Dysk at 3:37 AM on January 13, 2023 [6 favorites]

Same.
posted by Fizz at 5:05 AM on January 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

Kids! - Make better choices
posted by lalochezia at 5:06 AM on January 13, 2023 [4 favorites]

I like when they're up on two legs.

Hey Jeff, look at me, I'm a human.
posted by adept256 at 5:22 AM on January 13, 2023 [14 favorites]

All I can think of on hearing this is the moral panic about jenkem some years ago.

Jenkem could be an older tradition than we might assume, Dysk.

From The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, published in 1771:

the learned Dr. B—, in his treatise on the Four Digestions, explains in what manner the volatile effluvia from the intestines, stimulate and promote the operations of the animal oecon- omy: he affirmed, the last Grand Duke of Tuscany, of the Medicis family, who refined upon sensuality with the spirit of a philosopher, was so delighted with that odour, that he caused the essence of ordure to be extracted, and used it as the most delicious perfume: that he himself, (the doctor) when he happened to be low-spirited, or fatigued with business, found immediate relief and uncommon satisfaction from hanging over the stale contents of a close-stool, while his servant stirred it about under his nose; nor was this effect to be wondered at, when we consider that this substance abounds with the self-same volatile salts that are so greedily smelled to by the most delicate invalids, after they have been extracted and sublimed by the chemists. By this time the company began to hold their noses; but the doctor, without taking the least notice of this signal, proceeded to shew, that many fetid substances were not only agreeable but salutary; …

Compost piles are known to generate nitric oxide as well as nitrous oxide, so we could be looking at deer on laughing gas and poppers.
posted by jamjam at 5:38 AM on January 13, 2023 [3 favorites]

Have the neighbourhood's teenagers started gathering there yet?

Sniffing compost would be a move up from smoking banana peels, at least.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:00 AM on January 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

I see one of them is a mean drunk.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:38 AM on January 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

Sniffing compost would be a move up from smoking banana peels, at least.

dear lord look what you've done

I've lived around deer for decades and this is new information. Wild.
posted by elkevelvet at 8:22 AM on January 13, 2023

Needs #goodshitman tag.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:11 AM on January 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

Looks to me like deer zoomies
posted by emd3737 at 11:56 AM on January 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

The fawns cavort like this, just because they're in the open (on my lawn). The fawn I raised would get this way when multiple people visited, or went with him into the woods (especially after some fruit). He was always clearly more comfortable in the woods than the clear. But with 2 or more people along, he'd seriously party. Herd animal. Only time I heard him cry, was when some visitors left!
posted by Goofyy at 5:44 PM on January 13, 2023 [3 favorites]