Team JustNorth posted on September 21, 2007 09:13 :: 8467 Views
The whitetail deer is counted among the smartest and most elusive game animals in the world. No wonder so many hunters are interested in understanding the habits of North America’s most numerous big game animal. No human can possibly match the whitetail deer’s superior capacity to avoid danger by using its keen senses of sight, smell and hearing. The best chance that the hunter has is to become familiar with deer behavior and habitat in an attempt to locate a deer in its territory. Without this knowledge, the hunter is not hunting; the hunter is simply walking through the woods or sitting in a tree stand depending upon a lucky encounter with a deer.
Whitetail deer have defined habitat preferences. They are primarily a woodland creature and prefer hardwood forests but will certainly inhabit the numerous pine plantations of the southern states as well. For every generalization of this type, there are counterexamples. For example, the subspecies of whitetail deer in Florida happily inhabits swampy areas and loves to live in swamp oak forests while the Coues deer of Arizona and the Texas whitetail thrive in a more open and brushy environment. Whitetail deer have also adapted well to suburban life as well as long as there are some wooded areas available for habitat.
However, deer aren’t going to constantly struggle through dense tree growth and brush. Whitetail deer prefer woodland areas that have fields, meadows and other open areas that are suitable for feeding. The preferred habitat has a mix of vegetative types of plants for feeding throughout the year as well as good woodland cover for resting and escaping predators. This mixture of forests and open areas is referred to as the edge effect by biologists since there are many edge areas where cover is close to an open area. The deer can safely feed near the edges of safe havens.
The deer herd is a matriarchal society. The bucks live separately from the does, fawns and yearlings except during the breeding season and part of the winter. Even during those brief periods when the bucks join up with the herd, the herd continues to be led by a mature doe. An adult doe usually leads a small group of three to five deer which may or may not be her own offspring. Other than the lead doe, there isn’t a social order among the deer in a herd like there is among a wolf pack, for example. Usually though the younger deer tag behind their elders when the herd moves; this may simply be a reflection of the fact their legs and stride aren’t as long. However, when comes to competition for the best feeding area, older deer will chase the youngsters away and eat first. The lead doe determines where the group will travel. When groups of bucks form in the spring and summer, they “hang out” together without leadership.
Deer normally travel in areas where they are not easily seen. If they cannot travel under the cover of bushes or trees, they will select narrow low areas or the lowest point below some type of hill or knoll. By traveling in these low areas, they are sheltered from view.
Deer usually travel along the same paths when they move through their territory. Does, fawns and yearlings of both genders will travel together on well-worn paths that are called deer trails. Bucks tend to live a solitary existence and bucks seldom travel on the doe highways except during mating season when they are following a doe that may be receptive to breeding. Buck routes are not as well-defined because they are used generally by only one buck. SECRET: Bucks like to take meandering routes because bucks are naturally cautious and elusive and bucks prefer to spend time in the heavy cover in low areas like creek bottoms or gullies and anywhere else that they are out of view. Bucks live in rougher terrain and thicker cover by choice and are simply harder to find.
Deer have a great instinctual understanding of the natural world and they take advantage of thermals. Thermals are air currents that move up and down the contours of the land as the temperature changes during the day. Any movement of air carries scents that the deer’s keen sense of smell easily detects. Thermal currents will move uphill when the day’s temperature increases during the morning and will move down the slope as temperatures decrease in the evening. Deer use the thermals when they bed down on hillsides during the day to chew their cud so they can detect scents on the uphill currents. Then the deer move downhill in the late afternoon to travel to their feeding areas in lowland meadows and clearings. They take advantage of their keen ability to detect scent on the currents that are still moving uphill. During the night deer prefer to bed in low areas where they can detect any scents on downhill thermal currents. As the deer move uphill toward their daytime bedding areas at sunrise they detect scents on the thermals which are still moving downhill because the day’s temperature has not yet begun to rise enough to change the thermal currents to the uphill direction.
Deer bedding areas
Deer spend parts of the day bedded down to chew their cud in addition to bedding down for sleeping. Have ever looked at fluffy dog bed after the dog has gotten up from a nap? There is a curved depression in the dog soft dog bed that is distinctly rounded on one side where the spine and the greatest weight of the body was resting and just a little depressed area that represents where the legs and feet were placed. A deer bedding spot looks much the same way, except of course, that it occurs in grasses, weeds, fallen leaves, snow or pine needles. The matriarchal herd of three to five deer will tend to sleep together so the hunter may find several beds close together.
Deer in general, as well as individual deer have preferences for where they bed down. The previous discussion of thermal currents explains why deer may bed down on a hillside during the day. Otherwise deer will bed down in low areas or the edge of weedy fields where there is a good opportunity to be hidden from view.
These criteria really tend to apply more to does and youngsters that accompany them. The venerable mature bucks always prefer to bed down in the best cover they can find. The pine trees in the last picture sit on top of a ridge. While the does rested pretty much out in the open next to the pine trees, where was the buck? The mature buck with a nicely formed rack would spend his summer days at the bottom of the ridge. His lowland location featured a combination of dense autumn olive bushes (also called cardinal songbird hedge) to the east, general brush to the south, wild blackberry bushes to the north, and the hillside to the west.
SECRET: When you read that the buck prefers to bed down in a protected thicket, this is the kind of cover he seeks out.
SECRET: Generally, a buck will bed in an area of heavy vegetation or timber within a quarter-mile of his feeding area.
SECRET: Bucks most often bed by laying on their right side and facing downwind, which allows them to use their eyes, ears and nose to detect danger approaching from almost any direction.
Wishing You Your Very Best Season.
Sincerely,
Joe Pineland
Deer Hunting Secrets. Discover The Closely Guarded True Secrets Of Master Hunters.
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Click to view Deer Hunting Secrets and Whitetail Deer Hunting Tactics - Part 2
Click to view Deer Hunting Secrets and Whitetail Deer Hunting Tactics - Part 3 - The Rut
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