James Hamilton, M. D.
Folks,
We seem to be focusing on a wide variety of topics in this Forum which, in my opinion, is a good thing and what it was meant to be.
So, here is something on a different "note".
Do wild animals respond to music?
We occasionally see videos of dogs or other pets " singing" along with their owners. But those are critters that have a lot of close interaction and contact with their owners. However, can this occur with wildlife?
A few months ago I saw one of those YouTube videos from a home surveillance camera of a lady playing a viola in her driveway which appeared to catch the attention of a few deer across the street. They started to cross the street toward the musician but the video ended before they completed their journey.
In all the 46 years we have lived in this home and have seen hundreds of mule deer from newborn fawns to adult does and magnificent antlered bucks, I have never attempted to touch one except the first year we were here and saw a nesting fawn whom we thought (wrongly) to have been abandoned by its mother. So, with gloves on, I gently lifted it up allowing the spindly legs to unfold like a card table after which a quick tap on the butt sent it running off across the neighborhood.
But I digress. The point is that these deer, as accustomed as they are to humans, generally keep their distance of about 15 feet from us two-legged animals. Thus it came to my mind to try an experiment. Does music, especially the more mellow types, have a calming effect on these deer that would mollify their hesitancy to get closer to people?
I have loaded on my cellphone three rather mellow instrumental songs, two by Mason Williams (Classical Gas, A Gift of Song) and an orchastral version of Unchained Melody. My plan, when I see some deer grazing in our yard where the snow has melted, is to play one or more of these recordings and observe their response - will they approach me, continue grazing or leave. Don't worry, I shall not physically touch them as that is not good for wildlife or me.
Obviously this is, at best, a mildly scientific, experiment. Hey, it beats shovelling snow for wintertime entertainment! Talk about winter doldrums!
Any guesses as to which - if any - of these tunes may appeal to them?
Jim
|