Antler Points

Anyone can list most of the factors that may cause a different number of deer to be seen one year to the next. "There were more deer last year!" seems a likely idea from a hunter who hasn't seen a deer. There are other good reasons, such as the weather, that cause animals to move differently. The season may be early (or late) so foods are different. The energy in leaves and stems may be low if the summer has been hot and dry, thus animals are feeding in different areas. Available acorns alone can cause a population to shift its movement patterns. Changes in farming, people building in rural areas, dog-leash laws-all can change deer movement and behavior...of the same number of deer.

Miniature radios put on deer and on hunters in one study showed that they can be very close to each other without the hunter seeing the deer. In one case, scientists concluded that one deer had to be creeping because it was adjacent to a hunter, not seen...and moving!

For deer to have survived over the eons in the face of predation and over 10,000 years of human hunting in this region, they have to have developed abundant, wonderful skills at not been seen.

Years ago in a fenced-in area of 640 acres (1 square mile) in Michigan (the famous Cusino Wildlife Experiment Station). There were 39 deer, 7 of which were bucks. Six veteran hunters hunted for 4 days before they saw the first buck. During 4 years of study, the area had 34 deer. It took over 1 hour to see any deer and over 10 hours to see a buck; 14 hours to take an antlerless deer, 51 to take a buck.

R* Deer managers often include these probabilities of sighting different deer within their computations of pre- and post-season surveys, harvests, and recreational use potentials of private areas.

This Web site is maintained by R. H. Giles, Jr.
Last revision January 17, 2000.