salt lick question

[Deebz]

Hello All! I am a high school science teacher, and every year our sophomore students do a large research project in which they choose a topic, research the topic in English class and write a large paper.  Then they design and carry out an experiment and put it all together into a presentation.  One of our students this year would like to do her project on salt licks for deer.  She has been able to find quite a lot of information on specific products that are sold as salt licks, but is having trouble locating any kind of research or information on the history of salt licks in general.  I realize that this is obviously a tool that developed over the years after realizing that deer are attracted to salt and other mineral deposits, but i was just hoping somebody out there may have some information/research that she could use as an official source in her paper.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[shaman]

As I remember,  the autobiographies of Philip Tome and  Meshack Browning both contain some mention of using salt licks in regards to deer hunting. Both are in print.  The former is available free online.  I also think Daniel Boone's biographies mention Big Bone Lick in Kentucky.  The park at Big Bone Lick would probably be able to point your student in good direction.  It is a natural lick that has been drawing game for probably 10,000 years or more.

Here's a good resource on making licks:

http://fw.ky.gov/mineral.asp

One problem:  now is not the best time to be working with mineral licks.  The deer are on the tail end of their interest in salt.  Usually salt becomes an all-consuming craving for deer beginning in March, hits a peak in June-July and starts to taper off in August.  This coincides with both the doe's lactation requirements and the buck's antler growth.  Now that we're getting into Fall, the deer are visiting the licks less and less.

[msbadger]

I would have her also give a call to White Tail Institute and ask them..They may be of great help steering her to resource material ....also ...If I remember when my daughter taught there....that Georgia College and State University has a program in white tail studies...try hitting their web pages......Thanks for being a teacher willing to go that extra mile for a student[:)]

[Deebz]

Thanks a bunch badger!! I always get excited when students try to incorporate their interests in the outdoors into their schoolwork.  I try to educate my students on the benefits of hunting and why we need to manage our wildlife populations whenever the opportunity arises.  I find that a lot of them are more receptive to the ideas than I sometimes expect. 

[Deebz]

Thank you very much Shaman!  I'll be sure to pass along that info, and I'll plan on checking out that info myself.  Hopefully she's been able to get data on visits to established salt licks already.  It'd be a shame to have a seasonal need result in poor data for her project.  And can i just say how awesome this forum is??

[EatDeer]

If you look on qdma forums ther is tons of information,photos for mineral / salt licks...they kinda did thier own study of sorts.

Mainly deer go after the salt, the minerals are a added bonus...besides most deer get all those minerals from the free range browse,etc.