Stotting

It doesn’t take many encounters with mule deer before one is seen to stot.

Stotting is a rather unusual gait. Most quadrupeds can walk, trot, and gallop. But to these gaits the mule deer adds stotting. It is the only stotting animal around here. (The white-tailed deer, common in the valleys, does not stot.)

This mule deer is walking, a slow gait that involves moving only one leg at a time (30 April 2014).

This mule deer is trotting: a gait that moves diagonally opposite legs together (12 April, 2011).

Last weekend’s mule deer is stotting: it springs into the air with stiff legs, lifting all four feet off the ground simultaneously.

As a stotting deer travels over the ground, it spends most of its time in the air.