Thursday, November 13, 2008 9:16 PM CST
The rut is heating up — be careful out there
By DAVE SHADOW, Hunting and fishing columnist
Even after all these years in the woods watching whitetailed deer, it still amazes me the difference in the behavior of both the does and the bucks when the “rut” or breeding season is here. Normally, the young deer and many does are not extremely wary during the earlier part of the year, but the bucks are always on guard. Especially the big bucks.
Most of the year we would question whether there are actually any big bucks around. They become very nocturnal (moving only at night) with age and size and simply aren’t seen very often during daylight hours. The exception is when agricultural activities “bump” one out of his bedding area or favorite fencerow,
Just two weeks ago most deer activity was pretty normal. Now it is getting plumb crazy. The does are prancing around like debutantes, attracting the bucks and then running off in all directions. The bucks follow the does like they’ve got a ring in their nose, no matter where it takes them. They lose all fear of automobiles and caution. They will still react adversely to humans on foot, alarming odors and other sensory alarms, but they are much slower to react, sometimes causing their demise.
Don’t get me wrong, they are not dumb during this period to the point that it is easy to harvest one with archery equipment. It’s just much easier to actually see bucks and much more likely to hit one with your automobile. My insurance man tells me deer/auto loss ratios have increased drastically in the last year, prompting my advice to be more alert when traveling.
This increased activity will continue to heat up for a couple more weeks and then will moderate somewhat. Even when most of the does have been bred, the bucks will continue to cruise, looking for one that he’s missed.
I have regularly circulated around 19 different stand locations for the past three weeks watching deer activity, taking only one buck (a wall hanger) and a couple of does for freezer meat. I have watched numerous other does, fawns, yearlings and smaller bucks as they progress through the rituals of this breeding period. The bucks’ fighting for breeding rights is an impressive sight, as is watching them as they make their rubs and scrapes. However, I think that I’m always more impressed seeing two does fighting. Having no “headgear,” they do all of their offensive and defensive activities with front hooves. This is not to underrate the intensity of the fight. In most cases they actually do more damage than the bucks. They will circle each other, then raise up on their back feet and paw each other with razor-sharp hooves. The hide and hair will fly unless one of them loses courage and evacuates the area.
Going back a half paragraph, I’ll explain what a rub and scrape are. First, a deer rubs trees and bushes to clear the velvet off his maturing antlers in the early season. Later he will create rubs as he stages mock fights with bushes and small trees and will create a “rub-line” indicating his presence and possible dominance in the area. The rub-line will consist of scarred and peeled trees along a path that he travels regularly. In most cases, larger damaged trees indicate a larger buck — maybe just a meaner one. The scrapes will indicate the start of the active breeding search and consist of areas approximately two feet in diameter that are pawed clean with the buck’s front feet. He then urinates in this spot to mark his territory and attract does. Most of the time the good scrapes will be under an overhanging limb (about 5 feet high) where he also rubs his rack and head glands to deposit more odor and residue. In subsequent visits he will also lick this branch, consequently it’s referred to as a “licking branch.”
There’s a lot more to this process, but maybe this gives you more of an idea as to what is actually happening out there that causes these increased accidents and deer sightings. Most of all, slow down and be more alert, especially in rural areas and near wooded sites.
Fishing note: The crappie are biting on Lake Mattoon, this week in fairly shallow water on small jigs and twister tails. The drop in water temperature brings some fine late-fall fishing.
It’s faith, family and fishin’.
Dave Shadow is the Journal Gazette/Times-Courier’s hunting and fishing columnist.
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Poster51 wrote on Nov 15, 2008 7:15 AM: