Deer are not particularly careful about where they settle personal matters. Spyglass Hill Golf Course in Pebble Beach, California, may be one of the nicer courses in the country, but earlier this month it served as a prime location for two deer to battle for dominance.
In amazing, close-up footage posted to YouTube, the deer lock horns and engage in a long, drawn-out battle that manages to shred one of the course's greens in the process. But the deer proceed as if nothing happened, and onlookers crowd in to catch the action first-hand.
Deer experts will tell you that it's not uncommon for bucks to fight one another, and in the fall it's almost always over the same reason: An effort to assert dominance.
Deer enjoy a good social hierarchy, and when one buck's dominance is threatened by another, the only solution is to lock antlers and wrestle one another until one of the deer back down.
There's a lot on the line, too. Since fall is breeding season, the bucks are essentially fighting for sex. And deer are far from monogamous: They'll try to pile up as many sexual partners as possible, with the dominant ones inevitably bagging the most does.
So as you can see, both deer were highly motivated to win. It's high-stakes combat. May the most virile deer win.
