SIU warning of approaching fawning season

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Southern Illinois University is warning students and staff at the Carbondale school to be mindful that fawning season is around the corner.

Officials hope for a repeat of last summer, when there were no reports of deer attacks on humans on the wooded campus for the first time in three years.

Fawning season typically runs from mid-May through the end of June. That's when deer become keenly protective of their young.

During each of the seasons in 2005 and 2006, a half dozen people required hospital care after being attacked by deer at the school. Several other people were threatened but unharmed.

Some speculate that a deer shot by police on campus in 2006 after it threatened a jogger may have gone rogue and been responsible for many -- if not all -- of the attacks.