Four Deer Commit Suicide?

Ok, ok.. the headline was a bit of a stretch. This does seem strange though. In my old stomping grounds of Athens, Ohio, four deer were found dead in the middle of a highway off ramp Wednesday morning. There was no signs of trauma or blood ruling out getting hit by a car or truck. The only conclusion the sheriff could come up with is that the four deer jumped off the bridge to their death. I could understand one, but four? I guess if something spooked them enough. Still seems like something out of an X-Files episode.

ATHENS, Ohio (WTVN) -- Four deer were found dead in the middle of a highway off-ramp in Athens County early Wednesday morning.

Athens County Sheriff's Lt. Steve Sedwick made the discovery at the interchange of U.S. 33/50 and State Route 682 just south of Athens.

"The only logical conclusion I can come up with is that all four of them had jumped off the bridge," Sedwick said.

The deer didn't have any obvious signs of trauma or blood which would indicate they probably weren't hit by a vehicle. Sedwick says he's seen one deer jump off a bridge before, but never four at once.

"I've seen a lot of things in my 20 years of law enforcement, but never four deer like that. It was very unusual," he said.

It's unknown what would have spooked the deer, but Sedwick says it's a good thing no vehicles were down below when the deer made their fatal plunge.

"Four at one time would cause a considerable amount of damage to a vehicle," he said.

Sedwick joked that some people have suspected that the lunar eclipse may have played a role.

A spokesperson from the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources says experts agree that this is a pretty rare thing to see.


Read more: www.610wtvn.com...

What do you make of it ATS?

Oh deer Lord! Sorry- had to do it.

Hopefully this won't turn out to be like the Overtoun Bridge but for deers.
It could have been some noise that scared them off, you know how animals are dumb in the way that if one starts running they all follow even if they don't have a clue what is happening.
Still, if i bumped into that during a night drive, i would be more than a little uneasy...

originally posted by: IShotMyLastMuse
Hopefully this won't turn out to be like the Overtoun Bridge but for deers.
It could have been some noise that scared them off, you know how animals are dumb in the way that if one starts running they all follow even if they don't have a clue what is happening.
Still, if i bumped into that during a night drive, i would be more than a little uneasy...

That's the bridge where the dogs keep jumping off right?

It's actually a good thing the deer were found before some motorist came along. Four deer would do some major damage to an average car.

Anthrax maybe?

It happens more often then you think in the wild though it could be something less severe.

Perhaps the moral of the story is that maybe they should have bucked when their deer leader told them to jump?

a reply to: aboutface

*slow clap*

Deer usually run in a tight pack, so if a predator was chasing the deer, and they felt in danger, the deer would follow the dominant leader anywhere and may have all fell off the bridge. To me this would make the most sense, if no foul play was involved.

a reply to: jtrenthacker

Yeah, sorry. I ought not to post before I've finished my first coffee.

I'm glad that I'm not the one who came upon the scene though because I'd probably break down and bawl. Somehow four is way too many. I hope someone puts up some kind of mesh barrier or something to keep any more animals from doing it.

a reply to: jtrenthacker
yep that's the bridge!
Nobody has figured out exactly why it happens, it's anything from some strange smell, to the hypnotic effect of the water flowing below to that area being cursed...either way the last thing we need is a place where it starts raining deers!

I don't know what happened, but if I was the first guy to happen upon them, I would have four deer in my freezer/refrigerator/jars/dehydrator...

Looks like they might've gotten into some poison or something. I've never seen anything like this and I live in WV. One deer, maybe even two, I can see, but 4 laid out like that is bizarre.

To be able to hit 4 deer and take them all down like that, the vehicle would have to be going very fast. But then, where's the blood? There would be blood from a hit like this, I would think. Very very weird.

So they are thought to have jumped off a bridge....Plausible.

Ohio is a state that has a great many Sasquatch sightings and it's quite possible they were being hunted by the species and as one poster suggested the other 3 followed the leader over the bridge and down to their deaths. Unfortunate and rare but it does happen. My best,