Educated Deer

G

Gunplummer

New member
Have you ever hunted an area where the deer just seem smarter? I used to bow and gun hunt a spot in western Maryland that was really tough. It had it all as far as habitat went and there was deer sign all over the place.(Before the new regs wiped them out) You were lucky to see 2 deer a day even during archery season, but they were there. I remember two guys from Pa. that came along down with their buddies so they could "show them how to hunt". They were in the campsite a week and still had not seen a deer in the woods. Do you think some deer herds are genetically more intelligent?
 
Deer aren't going to be "genetically more intelligent" in one area over another unless you have some sort of heavy metal poisoning going on or some such factor. However, you can get deer better conditioned in one area over another.

There is a difference between genetic intelligence and conditioning. You may have equally intelligent deer in two different areas, but the deer in Area A haven't seen hunters in 10 years and are less prone to run and more apt to be out during the daylight than deer in Area B that is regularly hunted legally during daylight hours. Deer in Area B will appear to B smarter when in reality they are just adapting to their circumstances through conditioned responses.
 
If all the deer that don't recognize humans as a threat are killed, then the only deer left are those that flee from humans.

That is not intelligence: if you took all the gumballs out of a gumball machine except for the blue ones, would you assume that the blue ones were smarter because they had not been caught?
 
Naw, dude I've seen it happen. I'm not going into a long story( I know your all happy about that!), Deer will condition theirselves to the antics of human behavior. I hunt escape routes only... Because my kids want to see and kill deer and at public hunting grounds, you 'll have more action at the escape routes.....One minute there's nothing to look at, and then they just appear (usually where you don't expect them to come from. I've hunted every season from 1978 to present,( I have'nt seen everything ) but I still get suprised by something a deer learns to do to survive!! When the season comes around I like to focus on past hunts. it helps... It's animal nature to adapt or condition, I think.

Thanks for coming!:cool:
 
Ever saw a deer that just stood there looking at you within bow range. I've been out and played with young deer(usually first season) in just this way. Got a 5 acre clover field planted in the middle of the woods. I've sneeked up to the field, keeping the wind in my face and watched young deer graze. I've actually slowly stepped out into the field and the young/less hunter educated deer will sometimes just stand there.

This being farm country, I've been on the tractor and deer haven't spooked. Walking the same field couldn't get close to them. Deer used to seeing the tractor and no harm being done. One guy down here has shot so many deer from horseback it ceased to be a challenge to him. Guess if everyone here hunted from tractor or horseback, the deer would be more leary/educated when seeing this.
On the contrary, I once had an older buck get down on his knee's and crawl back past me during a deer drive. I never did see him but dad and brother, which were on stands watched him. Think he was hunter educated? Made me feel like a fool as I didn't know he existed:o.
 
I don't think some deer are smarter than others but I do thinkg that deer get conditioned to their enviorment. Humans are part of that enviorment. Hunting season tends to really change their enviorment and I'm sure they react to the new conditions.
 
Deer might not be smarter in one area of the country than the deer in another area but they can be much more naturally wary. Many Florida residents are very surprised when I tell them there are huntable populations of deer here. Deer are rarely seen here unless you actually go looking for them. Even when you do find them, they tend to hang tight to heavy cover.

On the other hand, you can drive through parts of the midwest at all hours of the day and see deer openly grazing through fields or even in suburban neighborhoods.
 
robhof

Eglin AFB in northwest Fl. has to hire deer chasers and a few years actually allow hunting on the areas surrounding the runways (bows only), because during hunting season they migrate to the areas surrounding the runways and have been doing this for many years.
 
My buddy and I have a spot we hunt. PA was allowing you to bait deer for a few years. We would walk in to fill the feeders and the deer would jump up and run up a hill to the neighboring property. They would stop(40 yards away) and watch us. As soon as we would be headed out they would come back down to eat the corn we dropped. During the season the doe that are about 2.5 years old or more will walk up from the other property and stand at the top of the hil and look down. The yearling come down to eat but she / they will stay up on the hill. They look right at the stand when they come from up there. We had to move it this year.

We can drive down the driveway and the deer will stand out in the yard about 20 yards away and look at us. Sometimes they are coming up from the bottom property and we have to stop to let them cross the driveway. Walk down the driveway with camo on and a bow in hand and they take off before you get within 60 yards of them.

They are smart and they do learn
 
Bambi is smarter than you are to start with, but it's not genetics. His entire life is spent avoiding predators and he knows the land better than you ever will. Hunting pressure will make Bambi seem smarter because of that. He thinks, "Smelly, noisy, humans in the bush, I'll go deeper into the bush and eat at night."
 
Yeah! How did they ever learn to go nocturnal? I used to hunt a private farm down in the boothill of Missouri, the sign on this farm was astounding. There had to be more than a few bucks making sign on this 135 acre plot( 80% timber). But That very night before season was to begin the deer would split to another zip, or so we thought. It took a few years but we figured it out, (by dusting scrapes) by checking the scrapes every morning and every night before the sun went down, we learned the had only become nocturnal..and its not legal to hunt them past 30 min. after sunset in the Mo.


Thanks for coming!:cool:
 
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I have to differ, I have hunted deer in the same area for years, many learn tactics as fawns from the doe. While most deer seem to react alike when hunted, I have hunted deer that did things I have never seen another deer do. I was tracking a deer in the snow with my hunting partner one time and as we came to the bottom of a hill the deer was standing at the top on a glacier boulder that he jumped on to get a better look downhill.

The same deer made a circle and back tracked us using the wind for his favor. He followed us and then we ended up circling him following his tracks, and then he ended up in front of us once again, then used another boulder as cover to watch us come up the hill again! I have tracked numerous deer in this area and most of the time when you get on their track its a long distance failrly straight line marathon due to the rolling hills and thick woods. This buck wasn't typical, he was a thinker, just like some dogs are a cut above, so are some deer.

I have also had a doe that was really smart also, she went up a stream when she knew I was tracking her, and she jumped out 100 yards up stream. She mixed in with other tracks and even stopped once, walked backwards and jumped about 8-10 feet to the side. After 4 hours of fun and games, I said to myself this old girl deserves a break, and so do I.
 
Yeah! How did they ever learn to go nocturnal? I used to hunt a private farm down in the boothill of Missouri, the sign on this farm was astounding. There had to be more than a few bucks making sign on this 135 acre plot( 80% timber). But That very night before season was to begin the would split to another zip, or so we thought. It took a few years but we figured it out, (by dusting scrapes) by checking the scrapes every morning and every night before the sun went down, we learned the had only become nocturnal..and its not legal to hunt them past 30 min. after sunset in the Mo.
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Deer have had nocturnal abilities since they have been recorded and described by adventurers and explorers and likely have had the same traits for 10s of thousands if not millions of years. Deer seem to be equally diurnal, crepuscular, nocturnal adapted. They simply opt to operate within whatever time frame of the daily cycle that suits them.
 
Yup, them critters are smart. A week before season starts the can be found all over. Friday afternoon and night when all the hunters arrive to set up camp for the morning hunt, go out to the same area at daybreak and find nothing!
 
Have you ever hunted all season, in the freezing rain,averaging 5 miles walking every day, never seeing anything except other hunters, spending hundreds on virtually everthing because some wise-guy on a bow-hunting show thought he was the best hunter this side of the Mississippi river,only to hit one with you car on the way home empty-handed for the fourth year in a row???????????:mad::o


Yeah right!!!:D:D:D:rolleyes:
 
I swear to God they are becoming smarter, it's not long before they enslave us xD. I live in PA out in the woods and I see tons of deer every day. I go hunting, there isn't a single deer.....
 
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