Footage of a deer's surprised reaction to being spoken to by a woman communicating to her through a Ring doorbell camera has been shared online.

The video, which was provided directly to Newsweek by Ring, captures the animal's understandably startled reaction to having its front garden snack time interrupted by a disembodied voice.

Unbeknownst to the deer, of course, the voice is that of the homeowner herself keeping an eye on the animal as it munches leaves off the bushes just outside the front door of their property.

As the clip shows, up until that point, the deer had been happily chewing away at the greenery. So it would have come as an understandable shock to suddenly hear, but not see, someone telling it to move on. Deer sightings are rare but it's even rarer still to capture an extended interaction of this kind on camera.

In the video, the deer spends several idyllic seconds in the company of some tweeting birds happily eating the green foliage. Then, a woman can be heard saying: "Hey! What are you doing?"

The deer appears initially confused at where the voice is coming from, spending several seconds looking around for a clue as to where it is emanating from. "What are you doing?" the woman asks again. "Are you eating my bushes?"

Responding to this question, the deer's ears flick backwards like a dog reacting to being scolded over some minor misdemeanor.

"Are you eating my bushes?" she asks for a second time. On this occasion the deer stays completely still, evidently hoping it will see them evade detection. "Okay good morning!" the woman can be heard saying cheerily. "Just eat those bushes."

At that point the deer begins to edge forward, prompting the woman speaking through the camera to say "hi!" "Hi!" she says again. "It's okay." The deer, meanwhile, chews on, thoroughly confused. Suddenly a man's voice can be heard requesting: "Don't eat my trees." The woman adds: "Only eat those bushes. Bye bye!"

Appearing more confused than ever, the deer then proceeds to carefully trot away, evidently eager not to alert some unseen presence that could be lurking out of sight. "That was so cute," the woman is heard to say, prompting the deer to stop yet again and look back, still none the wiser as to what is going on.

The video was captured in Indiana, Pennsylvania. The homeowner told Ring: "We often have deer in our yard. It is normal for them to roam around our neighborhood. My husband is always chasing them away, I talk to them. We do come face to face with them and they just stare at us unless we move toward them. We were out of town when this video was captured."

They added: "We had a large bear wandering the neighborhood. The first we noticed the bear was when we were out of town and our Ring Doorbell caught him walking by our front door. It was huge and we alerted our daughter (at the house) immediately that a bear came through the yard.

"So, when I got the Ring notification for this deer clip, I was afraid it was the bear again. I was so relieved that it was just a deer that I happily started chatting with. At that point, I could care less about deer coming into the yard, I just didn't want to see the bear again."

While some garden owners may be concerned about the potential for deers to do damage to prized plants, the experts at the British Deer Society suggest one of the most effective ways to help combat any disruption is through encouraging eco-diversity in the green space.

"A good way to maintain a healthy, diverse garden able to cope with occasional deer visits is to provide natural food alternatives to your prize roses," they explained. "This can be achieved simply by allowing brambles, rosebay willowherb, rowan (mountain ash), dandelion, campion, hoary cinquefoil, sweet lupin, redleg, ribwort and yarrow to grow in the garden."

They added: "This also has the benefit of attracting beneficial insects and birds. A mixture of effective plant protection and eco-friendly gardening should protect your garden from attack by deer and welcome other wildlife."

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