Thursday, February 01, 2007
Some Deer Facts Worth Knowing
A study of deer facts can make anyone a better bow, muzzleloader, rifle or shotgun hunter. Here are some things to bone up on during the off-season.
A deers home range is the area annually covered while eating, mating, resting or caring for fawns. The radius of a home range usually is less than a mile in diameter.
Home ranges often are elongated, and may decrease in size as animal populations increase. One exception occurs during the rut when a dominant buck travels widely. A buck’s home range decreases in size as the animal grows older or as the local deer population increases.
The theory of migrating whitetails was once ignored by wildlife biologists, but too much evidence exists of migratory patterns in northern areas, especially during a severe winter. A case in point are whitetails along the Lake Superior drainage system once fall weather starts acting like winter.
In a bad winter (which can coincides with the firearm deer season), deer may travel many miles to find shelter and food. If deep snow falls during the hunting season, look for migration trails that will cross state highways and back roads into heavy conifers or other dense yarding areas. Migrations from the Lake Superior shoreline gains strength as snow piles up, and deer move into huge yarding areas like the Hulbert or Tahquamenon swamps.
Deer in southern counties seldom yard up because of severe weather, but such is not true in northern areas. Once snow reaches a depth of 12 or more inches, and cold winds howl, deer head for yarding areas by the most direct route.
They choose evergreens (balsam, cedar and pine) where cold, snow and wind have less impact on them, and the dense cover provides thermal protection against body heat loss. In Michigan, deer-yard confinement is considered to be 20 weeks during a bad winter and 12-14 weeks in milder weather.
Deer often bed in thick brushy cover during the day and near feeding areas in the evening. During snowy winter months, deer may venture from a deer yard briefly to feed but return to its confines during the coldest parts of the day or night or whenever snow becomes too deep for easy travel.
Deer require up to one bushel of browse daily to survive the winter. A matriarch doe often leads groups of three to five animals to feeding areas, but if weather is severe and browse is in short supply, does will kick fawns away before they can eat. This is one reason why deer mortality among young-of-the-year deer is very high in bad weather.
A dominant buck will lose 25-30 percent of its body weight during the rut, and that weight must be regained before heavy snows fall or it will likely perish.
Waterhole hunting can be far more difficult than many hunters realize. All deer are naturally spooky when approaching water. The need for water varies according to diet, availability and weather.
Moist browse supplies much of a deer’s water needs, and during winter months, snow provides the moisture required.
Falling temperatures often put deer on the move. However, the reverse is also true in Michigan’s northern areas during winter. The colder the temperature during November and December, the more deer will move to stay warm.
Deer activity decreases in high winds and heavy snowstorms. During lengthy snows, deer may be inactive for up to three days, and will move heavily once a storm passes through. That’s the time to go hunting.
Watch the weather forecasts, and see what the 24-hour forecast is. Hunting is often good immediately before a storm front moves in providing it brings a drop in temperature. If a major winter storm is predicted, it might pay to be afield earlier in the day than normal to take advantage of a whitetails predictable feeding patterns.
Many hunters consider a deer rub on a sapling or tree as a good place to hunt but few bucks ever return to a rub unless there is an active scrape nearby. All a rub means is that once upon a time a buck visited the tree to remove velvet or to do mock battle with it. A line of rubs that span 100 or more yards, and located near an active scrape or scrapes, can be hot.
Scrapes are important to early November deer hunters because of the rut. Most active scrapes have an overhanging branch above the scrape, and the branch has been chewed, nuzzled or raked with antlers. Many such limbs may be broken or hanging in tatters.
An active scrape features a strong urine smell, hoof prints and antler tine marks. Hunt 30-40 yards downwind of an active deer scrape during the first three days of the firearms season. Most but not all scrape activity has ended by the firearm season opener as the rut winds down.
Does will often visit a scrape. Bucks possess certain glands that some scientists believe communicate the buck’s dominance. I’ve watched does urinate in a scrape and stand, waiting patiently, for the dominant buck to show up.
Those does are ready to be bred, and this knowledge can help a hunter fill a buck or doe tag.
Food choices are widespread among whitetails. They favor natural browse and farm-grown crops, and some deer researchers believe Michigan’s deer are fairly divided between natural browse and farm crops.
Acorns rate high in nutrition and are easily found during the fall if the mast crop is good, but some years oak mast fails. Most of the state’s corn fields have been picked except in southern counties, but a standing corn field will attract deer all winter if it is near heavy bedding cover.
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Bucks often travel together in small groups of three to five animals early in the hunting season, but that lasts only two or three weeks, and will dramatically change once the rut begins. A dominant breeding buck will drive all small bucks away, and the punishment inflicted on slow-to-learn younger animals can be devastating or deadly.
All smaller bucks in the group are dominated by the largest buck. Often, small bucks of one age group will bunch together into a mini-group while moving and feeding with larger animals.
There you are. It’s obvious we’re closing in on Nov. 15, the most popular opening day in this state. Check out the Featured Article, the Outdoor Page and the Personal Thoughts column this week. There is a wealth of timely deer hunting information available on this website.