CROSS LAKE, Minn. — Jennifer Marshal was aware of three large white tail bucks rutting recently near her marina. Then one morning there was one. She soon discovered why. Off her marina’s dock Marshal found the missing bucks floating dead, their antlers locked together. They had drowned. In her yard she found the ground torn up with scrapes and deer tracks. Plainly the bucks had sparred aggressively over dominance in their mating season. This was along the channel connecting the Whitefish chain of lakes. Marshal checked around. She could tell where the bucks went in. The struggle continued down the channel to her dock. What to do? Marshal called a game warden, who tried to untangle the carcasses in the water. He couldn’t. He brought in a helper and a hoist.
Cross Lake is 140 miles north of Minneapolis and equidistance between Duluth and Fargo.
At peace at last. The rival bucks locked antlers in their seasonal rutting and drowned. Image: Jennifer Marshal