There is no such thing as a denying that Robert Conrad has a approach with animals.
We watched as he approached horses on the Cheekye Ranch in Squamish, and was capable of put them relaxed nearly immediately. They weren’t spooked, and appeared to genuinely take pleasure in his firm.
Years earlier, he had an analogous bond with horses he labored with within the Okanagan.
“This horse would simply go to sleep in my arms, and he would lick my face, and lick my neck, and he would do it for, like, half an hour,” he recalled whereas sitting on the financial institution of the river.
“I believed, might I strive one thing like this with the deer?”
For the following two-and-a-half years, starting in 2018, he spent hundreds of hours on Crown land behind his house off Okanagan Lake, sitting nonetheless and ready patiently for deer.
“They’d sit like possibly 10 metres away from me, however they received extra comfy with me, after which they might stand up and truly come nearer to me after which sit proper down,” he mentioned.
He informed CTV Information that he by no means fed them, and barely moved. The deer simply received nearer and nearer.
B.C. resident Robert Conrad spent hundreds of hours on Crown land growing a singular bond with deer.
“I used to be capable of pet them and received to the purpose that I might hug them,” he mentioned. “I used to be capable of contact their moist nostril, which is superb. It’s good, moist and mushy.”
Finally, Conrad was capable of groom and run them, he might even take naps by their facet.
A younger buck loved playfully sparring.
“I’d truly placed on a life jacket and he would truly play with me so he would put his antlers in, and it will be like a tug-of-war, similar to he would do with the opposite males who have been his associates,” Conrad recounted with amazement.
Doe turned so comfy, they might introduce their new child fawn.
“The mom by some means communicated with the deer that this man is sort of like certainly one of us.”
Many of those encounters have been captured in hundreds of images and video, which Conrad remains to be sorting via.
He’s nicely conscious some folks assume he’s nuts for spending a lot with them. A few of his neighbours turned irritated with it, and beginning threatening the deer.
“Folks handled the deer very terribly. They’d throw rocks at them, they might shoot BB and pellets at them,” he mentioned. “If you do not need deer round, then reside in Tokyo or New York or Vancouver.”
B.C. resident Robert Conrad spent hundreds of hours on Crown land growing a singular bond with deer.
The scenario turned dangerous sufficient that Conrad felt he needed to transfer away. He now lives in Squamish and works in human relations.
“I simply felt that for the deer to have some hope of being left alone, that I must form of depart them,” he mentioned, admitting he misses them dearly.
However he hopes he can educate others what he’s discovered – that deer are good, peaceable and really quiet animals.
When he returned to go to just a few years later, he was satisfied his “deer household” remembered precisely who he was.
