You are giving the deer too much credit..........they don't think logically oruse complex reasoning. They act, live, and survive based on instinct. A deer doesn't know there is a world outside thepen and doesn't care.......They know a barrier when they reach it.........that could be agorge, a river, a road, a fence, a building,a blow down, or a mountain......they don't differentiate between them and they don't consider any more then the one directly in front of them.Their state of mind will decide what they do when they reach it.Enough stress will cause them to either try to run right through it or jump over it............but usually in an unstressed state itwill simply alter their movement by either turning them aroundor guiding them along it's path.
A fence is afence to a deer............they couldn't care less if there is another one 1,000 acres away in the opposite direction ornot. They see the barrier in front of them and react accordingly......which is what hunters are banking on (in both scenerios).
I dunno atlas.....they can supposedly tell the difference between a couple of guys walking in the woods with camo on......and a couple of guys walking in the woods cutting wood. Supposedly they're scared of the hunters but not the wood cutters.
For the record....I agree with what you wrote. These deer are instinctive. They're not that smart. People want to seem to put them and their "reasoning" on some kind of pedestal. I don't buy it.
To them....things are pretty cut and dried.