A Buck in Search of Romance Instead Finds Unhappy Ending

This sounds like a children's book: "The Deer Who Went to the Big City." But don't let the kids read it. They might cry.

A deer came to the nation's capital yesterday and wound up prancing around downtown on 16th Street with a tranquilizer dart stuck in its hide. It got clipped by a box truck, suffered grievous injuries and, well. . . .

The carcass was hauled off the road, and midday traffic flowed happily ever after.

It's that time of year: "The rut," it's called. Mating season. With their hormones in a frenzy, bucks often "travel outside their home ranges, looking for breeding opportunities," said biologist Harry Spiker of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

This buck, possibly from Rock Creek Park, and possibly roaming unnoticed before dawn, wandered into a tree-shaded courtyard near 16th and M streets NW, outside the headquarters of the National Geographic Society (of all places), a long way from any forest.

The 150-pound deer "had been resting quietly in the courtyard . . . for most of the morning," according to a report by a D.C. animal control officer. About 1 p.m., someone at National Geographic called the city to have the animal removed. "It was determined to try to dart-sedate the deer for relocation," the report says.

Which didn't work out.

"One dart was fired at the deer," the report says. "It got up and ran back and forth a little bit." Then it bolted onto the road. "It was struck by a delivery truck. It sustained two broken rear legs and was euthanized on the spot."

The end.

"That's the crazy thing about wildlife," Spiker said. "Sometimes an animal will just go where it wants to go. And it's not always a very good decision."