As you watch the Facebook video below, it’s clear that three adult mule deer are doing their best to protect a fawn from a coyote. What isn’t immediately apparent, however, is the coyote isn’t hunting solo; keep watching and you’ll see a second coyote appear (see it standing off to the left?), then eventually a third.

The smartphone video ends before we know if the adult deer were successful in protecting the fawn. With three coyotes hunting as a team, it’s hard to imagine the fawn could escape.

As you’ll hear, the golfers wonder whether driving their cart into the middle of the action might help the deer. It’s hard to predict. I’ve watched many coyote/deer encounters in the wild during my 50 years of hunting, and usually deer have little trouble avoiding a single coyote. But when two or more coyotes work as a team, the odds changes dramatically.

Would the deer and coyotes run away if the golf cart was driven up to them? Who knows. The deer are likely more comfortable around people; chances are good they feed around this golf course daily. But the coyotes could be locals, too.

If all the animals fled as the cart approached, I believe that would work in the coyotes’ favor because the adult deer would no longer be able to protect the fawn. And it won’t take long for a coyote to kill or severely injure a small fawn. Even if the deer arrived on the scene to drive away the coyotes, they could return later to feed on the injured or dead fawn.

It looks to me like the golf course owners and staff need to increase their harvest of mule deer and coyotes.

Viewing tip: Be sure to hit “click to enter fullscreen” to enlarge the video. And I'm not sure what the high-pitched sound is in the background. At first I thought it sounded like a drone, but maybe it's a member of the grounds crew running a string trimmer or mower?