Wildlife Wednesday — Fartlek
By Andy Ames
Fartlek is a Swiss term for “speed play”. Many runners use fartlek training to help improve not only speed, but also strength, agility, efficiency, and endurance. Fartkeks can take many forms from recess on the school yard to segments of fast paced running based on time or distance. It can be regimented or totally free form. In the animal world you may see this with a pack of coyotes, or elk calves — both social animals, chasing and playing together.
For deer, fartleks are especially important and take a more regimented or constrained form. Rather than growing up with pack or herd mates, deer are raised largely in isolation from their peers. In their early days deer mothers will leave their fawns in a secluded spot for long periods while the she goes off to feed. Their only defense is to stay undetected. During this time the fawn is mostly motionless while lying down and hiding — not condusive for building the strength needed to elude predators. When the mother deer returns it is not only time to nurse but also to play. Under her watchful eye they will sprint back and forth, back and forth, over and over as they are able. Once they have worn themselves out it is back to hiding for the fawns and they can rest and recover until mom returns again later in the day. Within a couple of weeks they have developed the speed to outrun many of their predators.
Yesterday I was able to watch a pair of fawns in a morning fartlek session. Back and forth they would run through a little clearing in the woods, to the cheers of a flock of magpies and always under the watchful eye of their mother.
