Humans learn by seeing. Deer do, too. When a hunter comes upon a big rub, his heart skips a beat. When a whitetail buck encounters a rub of any size, it has different thoughts. Our excitement has to do with hunting possibilities. A buck’s has to do with identifying who made the rub, because...
In addition to being worn out and hungry, a whitetail has another thing that keeps him from moving about when the post-rut arrives: the constant presence of man. The hunting pressure incurred during September, October and November causes many bucks to become nocturnal. By Charles J. Alsheimer, Deer & Deer Hunting contributor In the...
By the time a buck makes it through November’s breeding ordeal and inches into the post-rut period, he’s a far cry from the muscular rutting machine he was when the rut was cranking. By Charles J. Alsheimer, Deer & Deer Hunting contributor A whitetail buck in the post-rut is typically 20 to 25 percent...
Throughout much of the whitetail’s range, the rut is fairly synchronous , occurring roughly about early to mid-November. As you move south, things change — sometimes dramatically. There are numerous mitigating factors, including climate, genetics, nutrition, sex ratio and radically different day lengths. By Bob Humphrey, Deer & Deer Hunting contributor One of the...
This past week, we looked at the many fallacies of the second rut. Today, we’ll discuss the true foundation of the second rut: doe fawns. Surprisingly, many doe fawns can breed before their first birthday. According to Deer & Deer Hunting’s John J. Ozoga, the key to doe fawns achieving estrus is tied to...
The premise is simple: Buck-to-doe ratios are so woefully out of whack there’s no way all the does can be bred during peak breeding. It’s also understood that does not impregnated cycle back into estrus 23 to 30 days later. So if you wait the number of days in the does’ cycle past peek...
For more than five decades, I’ve been immersed in the whitetail’s world. Though I love photographing them every month of the year, nothing gets my whitetail juices flowing faster than thoughts of hunting or photographing during the rut. I find all aspects of their rutting behavior intriguing and energizing, and I feel blessed to...
I’ve been interested in whitetail behavior for more than five decades. As a teenage hunter, I had many questions about why bucks and does do what they do and look the way they look at various times of year. As I progressed through life as a hunter, photographer and writer, many of those questions...
As I discussed in my previous “Whitetail Behavior” blog, white-tailed deer rely heavily on scent-marking at antler rubs and scrapes, commonly referred to as signposts, to communicate information of social significance, especially during the breeding season. There’s good evidence deer can communicate individual identity, dominance rank, physical condition, breeding status and other bits of...
Cervids (members of the deer family) living in open country, such as elk and mule deer, rely heavily upon visual displays and vocalizations when communicating information of social significance. In contrast, forest-dwelling white-tailed deer more commonly use glandular secretions and scent-marking, especially in conjunction with antler rubs and ground scrapes, commonly referred to as...
