Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
oak twigs by my face as two common ravens flap and croak like haikus across the crys-
talline December sky.
Ten minutes before shooting light ends, a young antlered buck walks broadside
without pause, followed by a big doe that gives me perfect vantage. I'd just been lining
up the scope's crosshairs on cobbles near the pond, practicing holding steady, and as
my trigger squeeze starts, the bucolic scene goes freeze-frame and grainy, like an an-
tique glass-plate photo, then shatters in cascades of image shards and lingering echo.
Ka-POWWWWW,
and a couple of seconds later something crashes softly a few dozen
yards down to the right. As before, there was no perceived recoil, although my rifle car-
ries a punch on the target range, and the Ruger even more. I walk straight ahead for
a hundred yards or so, turn in search of blood spatter, and see the fallen animal facing
downhill toward me. As I reach the doe David arrives for more tutelage in field dress-
ing, and when creamy fluid trickles from my artless nick of her udder, he notes that the
fawns have long since been weaned.
Our last morning I'm still taking it all in. Near where the deer fell are crimson
dribbles on grass stems, amoeboid splotches on chunks of quartz, and garish streaks on
a prickly pear, as if someone ran upslope juggling a bowl of precious liquid. Dropping to
my knees, I contemplate bloody Rorschachs on rock lichens that rival the tragic beauty
of a Goya painting, and dismiss smug hopes the doe didn't suffer, convinced only that
her five-second death was easier than one dealt by coyotes and likely kinder than the
lot I'll one day draw. Walking back, I meet Greg, who's shot a feral pig at the Plunge
Pool, and we discover six fetuses while field dressing it. David is concerned about these
destructive invaders and glad that this first sow killed on his ranch won't give birth, but
still we marvel at her wild boar-like canines and bristly pelage. I'm also intrigued by the
inch-deep layer of gray-white fat, reminiscent of a body sock, which bolsters claims of
snakebite not affecting pigs and thus their efficacy as enemies of venomous serpents.
14
