Dear Frank:
Deer are not that close from Cities, Rancho El Marques, where I rescued the 35 deer when it was sold, had 1800 acres in a very well protected area, 15 miles from my actual sanctuary, that property was owned by Juan A. Soto, he took care of the native deer for more than 30 years.
During the last 8 years, I was invited to study and take care of them (never paid). There, I had a wonderful school to study deer behavior. But, when the growing City finally surrounded the sanctuary, Real State Investors offered him an irresistible amount of money for the property, and he decided to sell.
Extremely worried about the deer fate, I asked him to give me permission to capture via drop nets as many deer as I could. I also hired 65 people from the neighboring El Rosario Village to push deer from the bottom of the property making a lot of noise, walking in line and in a large row, almost shoulder to shoulder in order to push as many deer as possible to the upper part of the property, this had to be done because a high fence dividing the land was almost complete, and it will divide the property.
In 3 days we had counted more than 65 deer going up. In that time does were having their fawns. I gave the people some empty sacks to capture as much little fawns as they could, because their mothers had been pushed to the other side of the property and fawns would perish. We captured 3 fawns, one of them was Timber, I bottle feed them at home, after that event, we net capture 35 deer until the new owners decided it was sufficient. I took videos of all this actions and ended with a dislocated shoulder and a broken arm when trying to capture a big male.
Central Mexico is overpopulated, but there are still some remaining places where deer are recovering very slowly, Authorities in this part of Mexico don't take wild animals in a relevant way. They don't even have a Wildlife Agency that regulates and take care of the few remaining wild areas. That's the reason I usually work more in the Northern States of Mexico, where deer and habitat is important to people and Authorities.
My wife and kids usually visit the sanctuary on weekends, they also like nature and wild animals. Many people that hear about this place ask me to visit, and it is amazing the way they enjoy deer. Every body loves deer, and knowing that this animal is so reclusive and shy, they love to see deer that close and interacting with me in such a trusty way.
Tomorrow I will send 2 other videos, I was wondering if the 2 others arrived or not.
Sincerely yours
Alejandro G. Cossio
Sierra Malichi: Living in Peace with Deer
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