Reading Pictures

Peaceable Kingdom

I asked 20 people at a party, “What does this image say to you?” The folks who responded ranged from pool lifeguards to forest preserve stewards to janitors to cooks to bankers. Some said, “I don’t know what to say.” The 11 substantive comments were all over the place—sometimes outrageously so. What does the jarring diversity of perceptions suggest?

“Oh, they’re so beautiful.”

“Big problem. Now they’re every-freakin’-where.”

“Hmm good! I use ground venison for tacos.”

“What a nice touch! Bringing life to a cemetery!”

“Deer should be symbols of happiness and nature. This photo is peaceful, but a creepy peaceful.”

“They need to be whacked. That head would look good on my wall. If that scene doesn’t represent overpopulation, I don’t know what does.”

“Yeah! I’m not surprised. They’re everywhere. They have so destroyed my yard; I can’t enjoy a picture of them. When I talk with people, I have to control myself. Other people don’t see them like I do.”

“The poor things are obviously desperate for food! They’re eating grass, in the middle of a cemetery, in the middle of the day.”

“Wild deer have gotten into a sanctuary for people, where they don’t belong. Too much development.”

“I get it. Cemetery—they kill everything. When the deer get through, everything will be dead, like in some [grazed out] forest preserves. I can’t see them as beautiful anymore. I wish I could.”

“I get it. Circle of life. They’re eating the grass—probably getting some nutrients from the dead bodies.”

All of us see the world through the lenses of our own experiences and learning. For conservationists, deer are wonderful animals that have become a serious problem for our local ecosystems. Most of our species’ history is as predators, but now we’re groping for a new and comprehensive ethic toward nature. Our culture needs a consensus on how people and wildlife can share our world.

Photo of Calvary Cemetery in Evanston by Carol Freeman
Words by Stephen Packard.
Learn more about humans and deer.
(Download “Conservation of Wooded Lands.”)
Related Articles: Deer and the Ecosystem,CW Winter 2000
Finding Common Ground in a Landscape of Deer and People, CW Winter 2005