Late fall is time for Mule Deer sparing - A ritualized contest in which two bucks approach each other, lower heads and carefully join antlers. Each pushing and twisting their heads trying to drive his opponent back or push him off balance. Sparring bucks will often disengage their antlers, lift and turn their heads laterally, as if giving their opponent a profile view of the head and antlers. It is thought this "profiling" may allow a buck to assess his opponent’s weaponry and to learn his own relative size, strength, and status and allowing future dominance interactions to be resolved visually, without resorting to potentially more damaging forms of aggression. This match finished after the smaller deer on the left backed up, turned and moved away, as three does watched near by.
