WHITETAIL DEER BEHAVIOR AND HABITS

Deer Behaviors

The ways of a doe are known to man. For many years I have hunted the same core area and observed four separate family groups and several outliers of deer. I have identified each deer by their unique markings that make them different from each other. I assigned a tracking name and a common name that describes their unique identifier. Some are harder to initially identify but if you look close enough for differences you will find at least one thing that sets them apart from each other. Sometimes it’s an off color patch of hair or even the edges of the ears that are different.

An example of my identification system looks like this. A1D is family group “A” and is the first doe I started tracking. Family group “A” is the largest of the four family groups. A1D is 15 1/2 years old this year. That’s correct, 15 1/2 years old. She has a left ear split midway ever sense her birth.

You may ask, how do you know there are four separate family groups. Each family group has its own structure that is easy to recognize. Usually there is the oldest doe, known as the matriarch, her daughters from previous years, and her current fawn. It also includes the daughters with their current fawns. These fawns can include nub bucks or small rack bucks for most of the season.

Family group “A” is my favorite family group simply because this family group dates back to when I started to recognize there is such a thing as a family group. Family groups share the same areas for feeding but I’ve noticed the bedding core areas are often separate. Observing behavior’s is where I start to really learn what’s going on in the whitetails world. However, to understand behavior’s you must also know the family groups.

Did you know individual deer have signature behavior traits just like humans do? These behavior traits include greed, aggression, anti social behaviors, even passive behavior. They also have habits or patterns. Things like their favorite locations of entry or exit, their favorite place in a field or food plot once they arrive, the order in which they travel, and even their favorite side of a feeder. Deer even have a predominate direction they face while at a specific location that sometimes totally disregards the wind direction. I’m sure they face the direction they think other deer, other animals, or danger has previously come from.

One doe I named is Beulah. She is also known as C2D. She is in family group “C” and is the second doe I identified in this family group. She is now 5 1/2 years old. She has had a single doe fawn each of the last three years. Her fawns tend to be smaller than the others in the area. Last year, her doe fawn, C4D, was so small I named her Tinker-bell. Beulah, or  C2D, is extremely violent and runs all other deer off the food sources.

Certain doe tend to have twin fawns while others have a single fawn. They also tend to have more of one gender than the other. Knowing this helps if you are managing the herd and want to keep the buck producers of twins while eliminating the small single doe producers or even the famous “Barren Doe” that has never had a fawn.

This year, I noticed all of the mature bucks and the mature does went missing from my core hunting area at the same time. This occurred between November 22nd till  December 2nd. I continued to see all the young bucks and the young does during this same time frame. The scrapes in the area were not being worked anymore. I watched as the young bucks chased the young does every day when they were together in the food plots. This was fun to watch and learn from but in retrospect I now know I did not stand a chance of killing a mature buck during this time in the core area I hunt.

What caused the mature bucks and mature does to stay away from their normal area? I think this was the first estrus cycle and the majority of the mature does were preoccupied with breeding. I also am convinced that mature doe are not “run off” from the family group by the buck as much as the mature doe finally leaves the family group on her own when she is truly ready for breeding. This time frame made for some poor hunting. Leading up to that time frame I had photos and videos along with my personal observations of the mature animals. This was the Pre rut. During the Pre rut chase is when I killed two 9 point mature bucks, both of which were chasing mature does.

There are also outliers to my four family groups. One such outlier is a doe I named Hairy Belly. She is easy to recognize based on the clump of long white hair along her belly line in one spot. She is a loner, an isolationist. She is 7 1/2 years old this year. She is a huge bodied doe. She randomly visits my food plot and feeder. She only shows up at night and she is always alone. She has never had a fawn with her. She always enters and exits the feeder area from the East. She is extremely anti social. In fact, if another deer arrives at the feeder while she is already there, she will leave immediately. I know this based on motion camera photos and videos. She is truly the “Barren Doe” and given the chance I ever see her during shooting hours I will punch my doe tag.

Recently a member of a hunting club, next to the area where I hunt, asked if I would give him a tip on how I’m able to kill mature bucks. The advice was to hunt the does. When the time is right, meaning the pre rut chase by mature bucks of the mature does, the mature bucks will start to move into the area occupied by the does and seek out a mate.  His follow-up question, “How do you know when the time is right”. My answer was, behaviors.

Article Written By : Jay Cone “ Living Every Day Outdoors”

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