This nature photographer has captured plenty of wildlife over the years, but his recent encounter with two animals in pitch-black conditions was a shuddering experience.
After hearing that his neighbor’s cat had gone missing, Jeff Beck, from Saratoga Springs, Utah, was wandering the local area searching for the poor feline near Utah Lake, but what he actually came across was far bigger than a house cat. Beck was using the LED flashlight on his phone to look for track marks on the ground, and when he lifted the phone up, there were suddenly four eyes glowing back at him in the darkness.
“My first thought when I saw the eyes was that it might be a coyote or even a cougar perhaps,” Beck told Newsweek. “When I saw the second set of eyes, I remembered that I’d seen a pair of mule deer earlier on my walk, and I realized that’s what it must be. They looked pretty creepy at first glance.”
He believes the deer were standing approximately 10 feet away from him, but fortunately, as Beck simply stood still and bided his time, the deer were happy to move on.
The two mule deer captured by Jeff Beck in the dark. Beck was walking near Utah Lake when he caught sight of the eyes staring at him in the dark.
@jbeckphotos / Instagram
Mule deer typically feed on herbaceous plants and the twigs from shrubs, so thankfully for Beck they aren’t the most dangerous creatures to encounter late at night. However, the National Wildlife Foundation (NWF) suggests that males can reach up to seven feet, and can weigh up to 280 pounds, so they are still a daunting sight.
Sadly, the mule deer population has been declining for some time, as the NWF estimates that the population in Colorado, which was once around 100,000 in the 1980s, is now closer to 32,000 deer.
As an avid nature photographer, Beck couldn’t resist capturing some pictures of his deer encounter. Although he notes that they are “very common” in that region, particularly around the local golf course, it was still a mesmerizing sight to behold.
Beck told Newsweek: “I took a long exposure photo on my phone, in which I could make out their outlines, which were concealed by the bush behind them as it was near total darkness. They didn’t react to our presence at all. We stood still, and as our eyes adjusted to the darkness, we watched them as they slid off towards the lake.”
Beck is far more accustomed to posting pictures of stunning landscapes and nature on his social media accounts (@jbeckphotos), but his followers have been equally amazed by his latest encounter.
He posted the image on Reddit, posting as user u/JephriB, showing the ominous sets of eyes staring directly at him through the darkness. The post quickly went viral with more than 11,000 votes and hundreds of comments, with some people suggesting what they thought it might be, and others joking about how fearful they would be in his shoes.
Beck joked that many Redditors reacted “much the way” he did at first glance, “with an initial jolt of fear.”
Jeff Beck captured the deer on an additional lens setting, to get a better image. The deer stared at Beck until he remained still and then they swiftly walked away.
@jbeckphotos / Instagram
One commenter wrote: “Never knew deer can be [as] scary as this.”
Another person responded: “They’re just deer. But I could see how initially it could be jarring.”
“Don’t go on an evening walk to a place like this,” cautioned one Redditor.
Do you have any amazing wildlife videos or pictures you want to share? We want to see the best ones! Send them in to [email protected] and they could appear on our site.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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