More on Deer Intelligence

I would say that my orginal post was in now way attempting to anthropomorphize whitetail deer, but some folks seem to think so. Quite to the contrary, deer have intelligence and world view befitting a 4-legged herbivore, and that's about it. You really don't need that much upstairs to eat grass, pass grass, and make little grass eaters. I could get totally gratuitous and suggest this extends to some vegetarian humans I know, but that would be going to far for just a cheap laugh at my vegan acquaintances.

Your average deer is certainly above turkey in intelligence. It is highly unlikely that they are smarter than a horse-- certainly well below pig, dog, and cat. That puts them around a cow-- makes sense, since they're both ungulates.

Cows can recognize who feeds them, but so can carp.
Cows can also recognize who intends to do them harm. Carp, trained to feed from humans, will keep on sucking for food even though the human holds a spear.
Cows know the sound of an individual truck motor and will be attracted to it, if it means food.
Cows cannot learn to work gate latches, as some horses do.
Cows will generally not deliberately knock down a fence, but will exploit a hole if they blunder into it.
Cows know how to get seriously lost when they want to, and they can find their way home over several miles.
Cows never engage in any cooperative, organized activities. Horses have been known to stage escapes from paddocks using lookouts.
Cows see other cows come and go, never to return. They never get the idea that we're turning them into hamburger.
Cows have no theory of mind; that is, they cannot see the difference between what you see and what they see. Horses, dogs, and cats have shown a limited ability to do this. Without a theory of mind, there can be no deception, no dishonesty.

This latter one is important. We see this develop in our own infants. Up until the toddler stage, humans have no well developed theory of mind. This is why peekaboo works so well in entertaining babies. A baby can be fascinated by blanket placed over a toy-- it seems to disappear. The same can be seen in deer. Man walking in woods equals danger. Man goes into blind and disappears equals man vanishes.