For some reason, there’s an edit option for your upthread post about your son’s squirrel battles, but no way to reply. There’s a Youtube industry of failed attempts at squirrel-besting. So, here. The war cannot be won! 
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I am reminded dinner ar L’Ami Jean in Paris. I ordered dove. The waiter warned me that it was “sauvage”, wild, and the flavor “forte”. It was lovely and I returned a clean plate with only a pile of bones. Bussing our table, he examined my plate and admonished me for leaving the head. Too late I remembered that sucking the head was traditional. I’ll never be French.
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Thanks. I can ironically appreciate his herd of squirrels smirking behind his back, “Flatlander!”
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Bear. Black bear, if I recall (and logically given the location)
I’ve eaten boar in Europe many, many times. It’s delicious
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You’ve expressed my beliefs about these things perfectly @LindaWhit. Think you may speak for many of us…
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Has no one posted the Geico commercial?
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The bottom picture is one I have, life sized, printed out as a target, LOL! That’s the one hunted around here.
The diet may, may not contribute to gaminess. That may depend on what the food and environment is like. I don’t know what a deer would eat in a pine forest; they don’t eat pine here. The deer here (White-tailed) don’t have access to corn. Being browsers, they mostly eat tender leaves and twigs. They’ll eat some stinky leaves, like Ailanthus, but mostly eat milder vegetation. The venison I’ve harvested has never been gamey, tough sometimes (break out the meat grinder), but not gamey. An easy diet of corn will certainly make the meat more tender.
Most gaminess in deer, other than improper butchering/handling, comes from stress hormones, released into the blood. If the animal isn’t killed instantly, or chased before shooting, (some states allow dogs to flush game), it can alter the flavor. I’ve seen bucks, chasing does, for great distances; this sort of excited activity could also cause venison flavor changes if the animal(s) were taken soon after.
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It’s a factor…probably not a major one, but it does contribute.
If you’ve ever had the pleasure of Spanish bellota, you absolutely have tasted how what the herd was fed plays into how it tastes.
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“ Chestnuts Chipmunks roasting on an open fire
Hot sauce dripping from their toes
Yuletide squirrels fresh filleted by the choir
They poked hot skewers through their nose…”
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You’re terrible. 
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I giggled, and then laughed. But also said “Noooo!” in my mind. 
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I have a crab apple tree . For whatever reason it is good for . I don’t know . And a apple tree . Thank you family of eight deer coming to eat the fallen apples. Way less to rake up . Could be because of all the fires and water shortage. They are here every evening.
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I have four apple trees. The Gravenstein has so many apples on it this year that the deer herd can’t keep up.
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One of my most vivid travel vignette was driving past an apple orchard in France and not believing my eyes as cows stood up on their hind legs to snatch apples. Dead cold sober then and still shaking my head.
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Another memorable site, sitting out under an apple tree in the country. A fence between us and a half dozen sheep in an adjacent field. And, whooooops, a large, maybe 150lb sheep jumped vertically up and over a 5 foot fence to feast.
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The other day on my patio I shooed off a squirrel with a big, unshelled peanut in its mouth who was squatting in my plant about to go potty. Does that count as a wildlife story?
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More than likely to bury that peanut.
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Lol I thought of that but its tail end was in the pot. Probably would’ve buried the peanut after. Blech.
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