A couple of years ago a friend, hunting on my property from a free standing blind, shot a doe in the middle of a harvested soybean field. She let the doe lie, waiting to see what else would appear. She was surprised to see a young buck approach the dead doe, nuzzle it and then attempt to mount it. This act of necrophelia was appropriately punished on the spot.

Later, a spike buck approached the two deceased deer and attempted to revive them, but was run off by my friend, who had no wish to squander a buck tag on such an insignificant animal.

Evidently deer do not have a strong sense of the difference between sleep and death.