White tailed deer, social heirarchy and behaivoral cues can lead to a more sucessful hunt (if you so desire)

White tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are common throughout most of North America, commonly seen by people in their backyards, from the seat of their car or deep in the heart of the woods while trying to mimic calls and smells in an attempt to lure them into the range. Many people find these animals beautiful and feel a sense of relaxation when they see one, it is seen as a glimpse into nature, a symbol of the true brilliance and beauty that surrounds many of us everyday, a beauty that we often forget about. Although yes they are beautiful, but since deer have had the ability to feed off of many gardens and their natural predators have been disappearing their population numbers have been increasing. Therefore it is the job of us humans to take this role as population control agents.
In order to make ourselves better and more efficient at hunting and controlling population numbers we must understand first the behavior of the prey we wish to catch. As it turns out white tailed deer have a myriad of communicational mediums the current methods that we have identified are visual, vocal and olfactory. Visual responses to a potential threat elicit a stereotypic response of cocking back both ears and erecting the hair on their necks, adrenaline is then released into the blood stream in case that the animal might have to flee. Often they will then stomp on the ground in an attempt to make the potential threat move, so they can then see if the threat is real and an actual threat, this behavior also alerts the rest of the herd (if they are in a herd) that there is potential danger.
There have been six recorded stereotypic auditory responses of the white tailed deer; each is specific to unique environmental changes. an alert snort made by both sexes, a distress call, vocalizations between mother and fawns are commonly heard, grunts made by bucks when trailing a potential does estrous scent, and two types of threatening snorts. These calls when made in conjunction with visual cues can lead to a lard array of signals that deer can use to communicate with one another.
Olfactory signals can better improve the communicational ability of deer’s. One observable scent secretion is the release of scents from the tarsal glands has been observed to alert other deer’s in the area of the imminent danger. In deer the presence of Inter-digital glands have been observed, and can lead to individual identification. The foot stomp is believed to release these chemicals and alert other deer as to who they are. There are many glands that assist in individual identification of many male bucks some of those being lachrymal gland, the metatarsal gland and a gland located on the forehead. All of these have functions unknown to us, although it is believed that they function to either alert other bucks that they are in the area, or to detect vibrations in the earth, although their function still remains a mystery. Finally bucks have a gland called the Jacobs gland, its function is to help them find and follow the estrous trail left of female does. Olfactory cues are an essential part to the communication of deer, although there is still much more left to be discovered and learned about these cues.
Bucks have one last type of communication, that being their ability to scrape and rub trees with their antlers, the function of heavier rubs against trees has been found to be a correlation with the size and age of a buck. Naturally a larger animal is going to be able to remove more bark faster; this action is thought to be a territorial marker to other bucks in the area. Many times bucks will be deterred from sparring based on the size of another rub close by, this may lead to smaller bucks rubbing larger areas in an attempt to fool other rival bucks into thinking that they are larger then they really are.
In essence it is essential for men who wish to hunt and pursue game animals to know and understand the behavior of deer’s if they wish to be successful.

http://www.huntingpa.com/Deer%20behavior.html

posted by Joe Alonzo