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OUTDOORS: Active deer put hunters and vehicle drivers on alert
by David Thompson
Now that November has arrived, white-tailed deer have more on their minds than finding acorns and other treats in the woods. What has their attention is their annual breeding season that is underway. Known as rutting season, breeding takes priority; deer will not forget to grab snacks during their free time.
An antlered buck begins to prepare for the rut in summer by shedding the velvet that covers his antlers. Shedding is triggered by the decrease in sunlight that affects a buck's pineal gland located in the brain.
The velvet comes off in shreds. By rubbing his antlers against limbs on shrubs and small trees, the buck promotes the shedding process. To further prepare for the rut, a buck continues to rub the antlers on small trees so that they look polished.
As the amount of daylight in the fall continues to decrease, as do temperatures, bucks become ready, willing and able to breed. Female deer, called does, usually are not quite ready yet. Late October and early November are when breeding begins. As the days pass, rutting activity increases. Mid-November is when the rut usually peaks, but breeding continues well into December, which means deer breed during both archery and firearms hunting seasons.
For archery deer hunters, the rut is an exciting time because bucks travel more in the woods as they search for does that are ready to breed. Bucks looking for does are apt to be spotted by archers watching either from tree stands or stands on the ground. Sometimes bucks focused on finding does travel close to archers without detecting them.
Bucks mainly search by using their sense of smell to detect does that have come into estrus for breeding. Receptive does have an odor that bucks identify and which excites them. Even if a receptive doe is not present, a buck will use his nose to follow her trail and eventually catch up to her.
One early November I saw two antlerless deer hurry across an open field and disappear. Two minutes later a buck with a big rack entered the open field and followed the scent trail left by a doe. He was at least a quarter of a mile behind the two deer, having followed them out of an area with heavy ground cover.
The deer were headed toward a rural township road, and chances are good that they crossed that road and proceeded to a nearby mountain. A vehicle driver using the road could have encountered the deer that would have appeared without warning. To my knowledge, no accident occurred.
The annual deer rutting season is the worst time for collisions with deer on highways that result in people being injured or killed and vehicles being damaged. Pennsylvania is among states with a high number of accidents caused by whitetails.
To try to avoid hitting a deer, you can keep in mind that their rutting season is in progress, which means that more deer than usual will run across rural roads and busy highways. Many of you live in or close to prime deer habitat, so that encountering deer should be expected. It helps to drive a bit slower than before and pay closer attention for deer approaching the road.
Often, if you spot one deer on a road or coming toward it, more deer out of sight could be following it. Keep alert until you have safely passed through the deer crossing area that sometimes is identified with a highway sign. However, during rutting season you can expect to encounter deer on roads practically anywhere.
Archery deer hunters keep alert for fresh buck rubs on saplings and small trees. Rubbing trees with his antlers is how a buck releases pent-up energy and prepares his antlers to spar with or engage in a serious fight with another buck. The outcome of the fight will determine which buck is dominant. Being dominant gives him breeding rights in his territory.
What happens, however, is a dominant buck that finds a doe in estrus and follows her for a day or so until breeding, vacates his territory and can't defend it. Another buck, even a small one that is sexually mature, can take advantage of the undefended territory. I have watched small bucks as they followed does that apparently were in estrus, and no big buck was there to take charge.
In addition to making large rubs on small trees, a dominant buck makes scrapes on the ground to mark his territory. A scrape is where the buck used his forefeet to paw the ground to make a somewhat circular scrape two to three feet in diameter. Since pawing removes dead leaves and grass from the ground, a scrape is easy to see and identify.
Most scrapes are made below the branch on a shrub or tree that the buck can reach with his head and antlers. He paws the scrape and rubs the overhead branch on which he leaves his scent. He also thrashes the branch with his antlers and breaks it. A buck may urinate on the scrape, hoping that a doe interested in breeding will hang around or leave her scent if she leaves the scrape, in which case he can follow her trail.
A buck commonly makes a number of scrapes in his home area and visits them regularly to find out if a doe is there or has been there and departed.
Ideally, your hunting area will have fresh buck rubs as well as scrapes. Finding those signs tells you that a buck is living there. If no signs are present and you continue to hunt there, you can hope that a traveling buck will show up that is searching for a doe.
During the rut, I have seen unfamiliar bucks that apparently were cruising for does. Such bucks may only be seen one time during hunting season as they travel through your hunting area. With luck, you will be waiting and watching at the right place, such as near a deer trail. A well-used deer trail is as good a place as any to hunt during the rut.