THE EVERYDAY LIFE OF A DEER
In this article we will be discussing not only the behavior but the senses that the deer use daily to avoid dangers. By understanding these behaviors it can help you become a much better hunter. A deer’s eyesight is very poor when compared to human standards. They have a very hard time picking out defined shapes and can only really pick out movement. Don’t let this fool you though, keep your movements to a minimum while out in the field hunting. To compensate for their poor eyesight, their other senses are certainly on point! A deer can detect sound at much lower volume levels then a human can and they can turn their ears to detect sounds in different directions. Where a deer really excels though is in their sense of smell which we will cover later in the article.
When a deer senses danger it will often cue the rest of the heard with a series of different behaviors. Deer will often stomp their feet when a threat may be present or when there is something in the area that makes them nervous. They do this so they can gain the attention of other deer in the area and to signal that there could be a potential threat. Whitetails got their name by the white flag like tail they have which they also use to signal to the rest of the heard in the event of a potential threat.
Deer like cows have a 4 chamber stomach and must consume up to 7 pounds of food every day and they must eat about 4-6 times a day on average because their rumen is so small. The picture below will show you how a deer’s stomach is laid out. The food first travels to the Rumen where all the bacteria and the protozoans are located, this is where the digestive process begins. The Reticulum circulates the food back to the deer’s mouth so it can chew it again. The omasum acts as a pump of sorts that keeps the digestive process working smoothly. It will direct partially digested food from the reticulum to the final chamber, the abomasum. This final chamber is the true stomach where the rest of the digestive process is done. Deer are known to eat up to 600 different species of plants. Due to their broad spectrum of different food sources it can often make it hard if not impossible to pinpoint their feeding locations in the woods in some areas. They will even eat poison ivy when other food sources become scarce. Deer do not turn down easy nutrients, some have been seen eating their own velvet when its shredded and even shed antlers in some severe cases where food is scarce. It’s important to remember that each deer is an individual of sorts and their nutritional demands are constantly moving just like a humans does. Because of this no one food source fits all. For instance one deer may need more nitrogen, sulfur or phosphorus then another and the other may need more crude proteins. Just like humans some deer may eat certain types of food while others may not, it’s all determined by which nutritional values need met by each animal. This also plays a roll in why the effectiveness of certain minerals and attractants taper off during the fall months in many areas. This is a different stage of a deer’s life when the antlers are already developed and the fawns are out on their own and no longer in the lactation stages therefore these types of minerals aren’t needed at such high rates during this time. We cannot emphasize it enough that having a well diverse food selection will lead to a much healthier heard. Each plant has different phytochemicals, vitamins, and minerals that a deer needs to help balance the ever changing nutrient demands of that individual deer. You can find out more about the yearly nutritional needs of a deer in the “Year in the eyes of a deer” article posted at the end of this article.
SCENT
Scent plays a key role in your hunting success. While humans live with a relatively poor sense of smell, that’s not the case for a deer. A human has around 5 million scent receptors in their nose while deer have 300 million. A bloodhound has somewhere around 220 million which means in theory a deer can out-smell a blood hound. Keep in mind deer can pick out odors from a couple hundred yards away which is why cover scents and wind directions play a key roll in the success of the hunt. Deer have a number of different glands in their body that they use to communicate with the rest of the heard. In this section we will break them down for you so you have a better understanding of how deer communicate without the use of modern technology like we have grown to use and love.
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