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Not deer but the most scared I’ve ever been was when I ran across a troop of macaques (baboons) in a Hong Kong country park.

Some weird British colonial administrator imported them to Hong Kong in the 19th century supposedly to control some other plant or animal. The things are everywhere in the New Territories and they are very aggressive. You can’t hike in some of the parks with food because they’ll steal it. Literally they’ll take your backpack off your back and rip it to shreds looking for food. God forbid you have a baby in a stroller!

Anyway, I was jogging in Pineapple Cove park. I had my HK ID card, enough cash for the bus home and a coke, and a bottle of water. I’d seen the signs at the entrance, with pictures of the bites the beast can give and never bothered them, and made a point to not carry food. I came around a blind curve and there was a whole troop of macaques (About 15) fighting over the carcass of a roast duck. I guess they’d stolen it from whoever was in front of me. I surprised them. I stopped. I didn’t want to run away, I was afraid they’d chase me, but it was obvious I couldn’t stay either. So, trying to not0 look afraid, I began to slowly back up. I realized, in a sudden flash of insight why everyone else on this trail had a big stick and often a dog with them. The macaques started snarling and fanning out in a 1/2 circle as I backed. They were going to surround me. I can’t think of many ways to die more awful than to be eaten by baboons!

Luckily a couple I’d passed came up the trail behind me. When it ceased to be 15 macaques versus one unarmed human and became a tall Australian woman with a bamboo stick, her Chinese husband with an aluminum walking stick, a large collie, and an unarmed human who didn’t appear afraid the macaques retreated to the trees.

From then on, I was an urban jogger.