A herd of Don Valley deer took over the downtown streets yesterday as the Deer Heads art collective roamed as part of Wade 2006.

Eight volunteers and I gathered at the fountain at Kensington Market and with paper mache deer heads strapped to our noggins, proceeded through Chinatown towards the Grange. The majority of folks were kind enough to smile or chuckle. We had a few "Where's Rudolph?" and "Santa's coming early this year!" remarks, but aside from that, more befuddlement and warm laughter.

Organized by Montrealer Hazel Meyer, the project was to address urban wildlife following the trail of development in cities. Meyer has tested her project in Ottawa last summer and Calgary in September. ("We had some weird reactions there; people were making rifle shooting gestures at us," she says.) Well, aside from the non-too-surprising reaction from Albertans, Toronto seemed to embrace the idea of deer running loose on the streeets.

So much even that cars yielded for the herd. And even a Club Monaco manager welcomed a quick prance around his store on Queen West.

The fawns, stags and does did a quick sniff around Speaker's Corner, perhaps searching for pee trails, then headed to the next watering hole at Trinity Bellwoods, where more Wade activities went on. Something along the lines of Devo in watered synchronized movement and music.

At the end of the day, the deers needed to cool their hooves and splash and play. No drinking from said watering holes, but popsicles were a more suitable substitute.

Wonder if a skunk parade would go over just as well?

For more Deer Herd pics, click on this Flickr link.