More interesting than a deer in mid-jump is the fact that it was eating seaweed. Using Google I found an article that seems to explain “Deer will eat seaweed if forced to the beach by snow, but it isn’t very nutritious or digestible and, under this circumstance, probably indicates they are in danger of starvation.”. This fits with the fact that these deer were on a small rocky tree covered island. The trees were evergreen and therefore not eatable, grass was replaced by lichen, which I saw the deer eating, and on all the deer on could see their ribs. Only part not making any sense was that the small island was separated from a large island with fields of grass by a narrow (40 meters/ yards) channel that deer swam to get to the island why didn’t they leave?
