deer homerange study

[kabic]

I saw this on QDMA and thought it was cool enough to repost it here for you guys that never go over there anymore...

http://ecosystems.psu.edu/research/projects/deer/news/2015/the-life-and-times-of-buck-8917

 

[dipper]

Best piece I might have ever seen. I wonder what the buck bed junkies have to say about this? Maybe there are just that many buck beds out there!

 

[Greta&Gus]

This is excellent information on so many levels. He traveled 85 miles during the rut!?! That is crazy. All of the habitat work in the world can't control an 85 mile shift in movement.

 

[Satchmo]

The detail in that presentation is just amazing. Great study.

 

[Jim Timber]

Now if we knew other factors like deer density, buck:doe ratio, hunter density (or other human and predator info), and ground cover for those ridges we could really learn something.

 

[tooln]

Very well put together piece. I'd have to agree he returned to die where he was born.

 

[sandbur]

This is excellent information on so many levels. He traveled 85 miles during the rut!?! That is crazy. All of the habitat work in the world can't control an 85 mile shift in movement.

I remember a post on this forum where one member said he could hold a buck on 20 acres.

Maybe in his part of Wis., but not in my parts of Mn. and not in the area of this study.

 

[Greta&Gus]

Now if we knew other factors like deer density, buck:doe ratio, hunter density (or other human and predator info), and ground cover for those ridges we could really learn something.

I agree. It would be interesting to know if deer travel more in areas with higher or lower density. I would also be interested to know if the amount of Ag in the area plays a role in the overall deer movements. PA is usually associated with high hunter densities but who knows about that specific area. Two years ago I watched a buck during the summer that ended up getting shot by a relative on a farm a mile north of us. He said he also watched it all summer. The buck was basically using a 1 mile core area for the majority of the year.

 

[kabic]

If you browse around that site it says these studies are done in some state forests.

 

[sticknstring]

That was pretty interesting. I would love to see some local research done in similar fashion.

 

[West Branch]

Very cool study. We have been able to watch a couple bucks on trail cameras and see where they move before getting shot.

In the summer of 2013 we had a mature 9 pt that was on the east side of our place. It disappeared until late October and showed up on the west side of our place 3/4 mile away from first pictures. Hung out there at night according to pictures and also a roadside sighting. One of our guys saw it opening morning at around 10:00 in the same field at 300+ yards and later that day it was shot by a neighbor another 3/4 of a mile to the southwest. Neighbor got it mounted:



There was another 10 pt that was showing up with the 9 pt in 2013 in velvet. Hung out on the east side and shifted north in the early fall. I think it was bedding on swamp islands to the north based on trail cam picture locations. Late November it shifted to the NW and then no sightings until July 2014.. Got a couple pictures of it in velvet and then no picture until November about 1/2 mile north of velvet pics. Pictures a few days in a row the first week of November, a week later on Nov 13 neighbors grandson shot it almost 1.5 miles to the SE. Did not get a picture of the kid with the buck.

If our place was split out into 40s and 80s with more pressure those bucks would have had to cross over many landowners/hunters to travel that far. In our case they were likely only on 5-6 different properties for most of the travels. They probably did cruise a bit further like the one in the study as well.

 

[shawnv]

The buck I'm after has already been as far as 2.8 miles away SE, 1.5 miles SW and 3/4 miles NW all within a two week span and it's early yet.

 

[*Hawaii5joe*]

Very cool

 

[chummer]

My area has very low numbers but every year near the end of November I will get a couple one and done bucks. My guess is they are searching for the last doe to breed and are covering large areas. I will get one night of pictures and they will never be seen again.

 

[bwoods11]

There was a good buck with a broken tine...showing up on camera on my neighbors farm in MN. I never had him on camera, but his co-worker shot him in the city limits of Glenwood...8 miles away.

Same buck

 

[SD51555]

For dots moving around a still frame, I felt sad when it quit moving. Chitty.

 

[sandbur]

That was pretty interesting. I would love to see some local research done in similar fashion.

There is some Camp Ripley data on deer with collars, but most are does. It was very interesting to read some of the summaries.
Some does moved considerable distances form Camp, it seems like up to 38 or more miles at the extremes, maybe even 60 miles in one case. Two thirds of does stayed somewhat localized.

We had several bucks around my home that were unique enough to stand out and they had a 2-3 mile or so range.