Recently, my wife & I made the difficult decision to have our family dog euthanised. We buried him about 3 & 1/2 feet below ground on my in laws property; which is located in a wooded part of southern De Kalb County. My father-in-law told us that while our dog hadn't actually been dug up, the deer in the woods were not at all happy about him being buried there, & that the gravesite was covered in hoof prints & that they'd destroyed the marker that we placed at our dog's grave. I/we know little to nothing about the behavior & territorial tendancies of deer & if there is a biologist avalible that might know why this happened, I'd be very interested in an answer. Thank you.

Good afternoon, My condolences on the loss of your dog. Rest assured that the deer are not interested in your dog. This is the peak of the deer mating season. So there are many deer out there with high hormone levels. If the marker was made out of wood, it would have made a very attractive place for bucks to rub their antlers. Antler rubbing can cause a lot of damage.

Additionally, wildlife are curious about changes to their environment. A patch of freshly disturbed soil will be checked out by many species, including deer. Since vegetation hasn't yet grown back, you'll have a good record of what species have been there because the soil will be a good substrate to record tracks.