CARBONDALE - Three people were attacked by a doe Tuesday afternoon at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. It was the first deer-human encounter on campus this year, but the incident marks a repeat of several attacks that happened last year due to the deer fawning season.

The attack happened on a footpath along the campus lake, south of the intersection of Oakland Avenue and Douglas Drive east of the Lesar Law Building. SIUC Department of Public Safety Director Tood Sigler said three pedestrians encountered the doe around 1 p.m. Police aren't releasing the names of the victims but reported the attack left one female university employee needing stitches for a gash on her forehead. The doe also scratched a student's jaw and sprained the wrist of another campus employee.

This makes 12 people in the last year who have been attacked by doe protecting their young. The end of May and the entire month of June marks the fawning season for deer. Experts say doe typically express aggressive behavior toward humans who pass too close to young deer in the area.

"We need to be cognizant of wooded areas. That's where many of the incidents occur, but not all," Sigler said. "You need to be aware early in the morning and late in the afternoon, as deer tend to be more active then."

The latest attack comes in the midst of a campus-wide campaign to educate people about deer behavior during fawning season.

Clay Nielsen, an assistant scientist at the SIUC Cooperative Wildlife Research Laboratory, will present a lecture titled "The Nature of Deer-Human Conflicts: Avoiding Deer-Human Encounters of the Third Kind on Campus" at 4 p.m. Thursday in the Life Science III building, room 1059.

- SIUC Media and Communication Resources contributed to this report.

caleb.hale@thesouthern.com

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