The sequence at left begins in early November, in New York's Adirondack Mountains. Charles Alsheimer stumbled upon this 140-class buck as it located a doe that was about to come into estrous. He spent the next two days photographing the buck's behavior.

On the first day he shot pictures as the animal chased off rivals, made rubs and scrapes, and chased the doe around the area, including through a nearby shallow pond (slides 1-10). At dawn on the second day a buck of equal size tried to move in and take away the doe. That's when the fight began.

The fight lasted for about five minutes. During it the two bucks covered about 50 yards of ground. Two other bucks were drawn to the area by the sound of the fight. Eventually the big 8-point won. It took the animal about a half hour to recover, during which time he stood panting, motionless, trying to recover his strength (slide 19). When he had, he bred with the doe (slide 20). The sequence illustrates the intensity of the whitetail's rutting ritual.

Click through the slides at left to watch the whole thing.

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