The 140-pound buck collapsed Tuesday in a New Jersey side yard after consuming his body weight in premium shade perennials. He is remembered for his uncompromising palate and vertical leap.
An unidentified whitetail deer, 3, whose voracious commitment to suburban landscaping destruction defined a generation of local woodland life, died Tuesday in the side yard of 412 Elmwood Drive following a total digestive collapse brought on by the Hendersons' newly planted hostas.
Born behind a retaining wall in 2021, the buck held the neighborhood record for clearing a six-foot cedar privacy fence from a standing start and successfully survived three separate motion-sensor sprinkler installations. Contemporaries remembered him as a tireless operator who could strip a mature hydrangea to the bare stalk in under four minutes without triggering a single driveway camera.
He was uncompromising. He walked right past the cheap native ferns just to decimate the $45 imported varietals we planted on Sunday.
He is survived by two does, six unweaned fawns, and a half-eaten rhododendron bush that will never fully recover. A brief memorial service will be held at dusk in the middle of oncoming traffic on State Route 9.