Chris Miller, who works in Nordic Mountain Park in Wisconsin, was trimming trees and at some point found a dead red-tailed buzzard on the ground with signs of multiple injuries.
The park is under video surveillance, and the man decided to use video recordings to find out the cause of the bird’s death. An amazing scene appeared before him.
Sarich caught a small rabbit and was going to eat it. The victim made loud shrill sounds, to which a white-tailed deer running past reacted.
He abruptly changed the direction of movement, fearlessly rushed at the predator and began to kick and bite him.
The bird loosened its grip and the rabbit was able to escape, but the deer inflicted injuries on the bird for a long time until it lost the ability to resist. After that, the deer joined his comrades and went into the forest.
A member of the hawk family, the red-tailed buzzard can grow up to 65 cm.
This is a very successful hunter, whose diet includes up to 500 species of prey – from invertebrates to small mammals and other birds. Holding the victim with his paws, he presses on her.
Perhaps he could have repulsed the deer, or at least injured him, but for the predator, the effect of surprise turned out to be an advantage.
The reasons why the deer rushed to protect the rabbit are not exactly known, but, most likely, the squeak of a small animal resembled the call of a deer in trouble, and the instinct of protecting cubs worked in an adult.
Deer, although they look cute, in a state of rage can be very dangerous and even capable of attacking people.
