Do Deer Know When Hunting Season Begins?

Have you ever watched a deer feeding in a field on your hunting grounds or seen a nice buck occasionally when out walking in late summer, only to have him disappear like a ghost when hunting season opens?  Its almost like they have a calendar that tells them when opening day is coming and they pack up and leave.

Do deer know when Hunting Season Begins? You bet they do. They know that human (predator) activity is suddenly very high and that they are being hunted. 

Deer have a place they can go to where they know they will escape predation and when they even have the slightest idea they are being hunted, they head to that spot and hunker down until the danger seems to have passed or they get so hungry, they have to move to food.

Often this movement comes only in the middle of the night when they know people aren’t around.  This predator avoidance makes it seem as if they all dug a hole and buried themselves in it.  However, they are usually no

In this blog post we sill discuss why deer seemingly disappear just in time for opening day.

How Strong is a Deer’s Sense of Smell?

I often think that I have a better sense of smell than most people.  I can’t stand perfumes and I can sometimes even smell deer when I am out hunting.  As a bird dog owner, I always marveled at the ability of a dog to find things with their nose.

The sense of smell an animal has depends partly on the amount of odor receptors in their nasal lining.  People have 5 million.  Dogs have over 200 million and a deer has nearly 300 million.

When animals walk through the woods, they are using their noses just as we use out eyes.  They can not only detect what is around them but can tell when it was there, and which way it was traveling.

Hound dog tests prove the amazing ability of the olfactory capability of animals.  A hound in one study was able to follow a particular person down a city sidewalk even when there were hundreds of other people and other smells around.  Even when the target got into a car and drove down the street, the hound was able to follow.

Deer use their noses to find food, find mates and detect danger.  Their life is led by the input they receive through their nostrils.

As soon as humans show up where they are not usually, deer notice the smell wafting out through the woods and notice where people have been walking and leaving their scent on the ground and vegetation.  Just a few molecules will send deer with a few seasons under its belt packing.

How Far Can a Deer Smell a Human?

That depends on the atmospheric conditions such as humidity, wind speed and temperature.  But it is safe to say that a deer can easily detect a hunter is present from at least a quarter mile and if there are lots of hunters in the woods, they probably never get out of scent until they find a place where people just don’t go.

They will remember this place and go there whenever hunters invade the woods.  It is probably like when you are out hiking and you catch a whiff of a campfire from a mile away.

The Predator-Prey Relationship

Farmers and loggers often have deer seem tame and hang around while they go about their business.  Being in the Forestry business, I see deer actually waiting for trees to be felled so they can eat the new growth from the tops.  As long as people aren’t acting predatory, they are not worried.  Plus the strong smells of the machinery probably makes a difference.

Prey animals know when a predator’s behavior changes to show that they are looking to kill them.  A pack of wolves can trot through a herd of caribou and there is no panic.  However, when they begin to show hunting behavior, they start running.

When people do what people do in hunting season – riding ATVs, setting tree stands, going where they usually don’t go, deer know its time to hide out. I once was doing a spray job inside a deer fence designed to keep deer out.

But, there was a doe and fawn trapped in there.  I saw them every day I worked just out of sight.  After I was done, I wanted to shoot them so the fenced area would be empty of deer.  But, do you think I could find them?  I never saw them the day I went hunting.  My behavior was different.

Where do Deer go During Hunting Season?

A Penn State deer movement study that is on-going with Duane Deifenbach has shed some solid light and real time data on the phenomenon of deer finding a hiding place.  The PSU crew followed several radio-collard bucks that had 2 or more hunting seasons of experience.

What they found was that a deer of this age is quite cunning and had particular hiding places that they went to when hunting season started.  These spots were often outside of their normal home range.  This explains why you may see a deer all late summer and early fall only to have it seemingly vanish opening day.

What the radio collar location map shows is that these deer will go directly to a spot high on a ridge with thick mountain laurel cover and a very steep drop off to the southeast.  These locations afford the deer ability to smell anything coming from the prevailing Northwest winds.  The steep slow downwind is terrain that is impossible for a hunter to walk quietly through without being detected.

When a deer feels he is in danger, he can dive over the steep slope and put distance between the hunter and themselves.  Or they can choose to sit tight and let hunters walk on by.  I have seen them do this during drives.

As long as they can hear, see or smell the hunter and knows he is hidden, the deer often just lets them walk by without moving.  Or, they get up after the drivers walk past and go back they way they came.

Also interesting is that these deer will stay in the same location for days while hunters are invading their home turf, only getting up to nibble on browse to keep their digestion going.  Once everyone heads back to camp, or goes home, the deer will return to his normal routine, even walking around brazenly during daylight hours looking to get some good food.

Steep slopes, thick mountain laurel and way out in the middle of nowhere is where deer go.  Once there, they are untouchable.  Dr Deifenbach says he is tracking a buck that is 5 years old and will probably never be killed by a hunter because his hiding place is a fortress of solitude.

Conclusion

Deer know when hunting season is about to start due to the increase in human activity.  They know when they are being hunted.  The best way to get a wily old buck that has seen a few hunting seasons is to figure out how to hunt him without him knowing he is being hunted.

It is imperative to keep it quiet, not ride ATVs all over the place, not smoke cigars and drink all night, to have a strict odor control protocol and use “deer-less entry” tracks to your stand.  You must get in, hunt and get out without deer knowing you were near them.  If you can do that, deer won’t know its hunting season and go about their regular routine.

This will make them many times more vulnerable and you will have a great chance at getting a shot at them.