People Feeding A Deer With Their Hands

Deer are great opportunists and some, especially those in parks or popular tourist spots, can quickly learn to overcome a natural fear of man in return for an easy mouthful or two.

Regrettably, feeding deer and other wild animals can encourage an unhealthy dependency as well as having other potential consequences.

Captive deer, even those in parks, are usually kept in numbers which their environment can support and if there is a need for any specialist supplementary feed this will be provided by their keepers.

All deer, even those accustomed to humans, are essentially wild animals. There have been instances when deer have developed unnatural levels of assertiveness after learning to accept food from human hands. This has led to reports of aggressive behaviour and even deer physically bullying people for food.