Don't know about studies but I saw a beauty yesterday. I gave myself the afternoon off, loaded the canoe and tootled off to the River Wey near Guildford... I was enjoying the paddle and about a mile past the small town of Shallford I got into a nice shaded stretch and desided to slow right down and cool off a bit, then for reasons unknown I looked up at the bank and there was an adult female roe laying about a foot from the bank eating and watching me. I drifted to within about 4 feet of the bank and it didn't seem to mind....when I got to within about 2 feet it stood up slowly not in a startled way and looked down on me. I was only about 3 feet from a wild deer and it didn't seem bothered at all, I was talking to it softly and it was just gazing back at me. Even with a few slight paddle adjustments to keep me still in the slow current the deer never startled. I backed off to the other side of the river to get my phone out (wanted a pic and it was the only camera I had on me) but as I got it out the deer casually turned and walked off down the bank. It stoped about 10 yards further down and sat down behind a clump of hazel and watched me as I caught up with it.
Unfortunately I couldn't get my phone to work so I didn't get a photo.....to be honest I don't care, just the experience was enough for me and no camera in the world was going to catch that......somewhere near what I would expect others to call a religious experience I suppose
Funny thing was that the last time I saw a roe was about three weeks ago, I was driving home from doing a quote to take a tree down and off to the side of the road there has been a wide firebreak cut in the forest. Up the hill slightly and looking down on the road was a magnificent adolecent roe stag, head held high and looking very regal. I got home and excitedly told my wife what I'd seen and she just said "typical" as she handed me two venision steaks for the bbq! Funny old world sometimes isn't it
Cheers,
Bam.
