Minnesota Mail Carrier Blocked by Deer in Sidewalk

Seeing deer walking around a neighborhood is not the most unusual thing. To see a deer walk right up to a person calmly and sniff the mail they are trying to deliver is very not normal, although hunting season has been over for months.

Fanjie Nelson, a mail carrier in Duluth, Minnesota, was on her route making deliveries when she encountered a very strange guard dog at one house. Standing on the sidewalk leading up to the house was a white-tailed deer.

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Nelson tried to offer the mail to the deer and even asked it if it lived at the house. The deer didn't have much to say. Not so much as a wheeze.

Another deer sanding nearby in the same yard looked far more spooked by the situation but not spooked enough to run off, sniffed the air to see if this mail carrier smelled like those guys and gals with the long noisemakers. She certainly was not carrying such an implement so the other doe stayed put.

While this looks cute, the deer's behavior could be conditioned by city dwellers who have habituated it to the point that it was looking for a handful of food from the postal worker because some well-meaning people thought it was cool didn't realize the problems it can cause. This is dangerous because wildlife can become aggressive when their expectations for food are not met. And if you live in a place where there are animals that can eat the animals you feed or eat you, that is an even bigger problem.