yoderjac
5 year old buck +
Pep,
Here is a couple interesting anecdotes I've posted before. I was archery hunting in the suburbs in a tree only a few yards off a homeowners back deck (this was part of a population control effort in the suburbs). Boys were playing basketball in the driveway out front. Dogs were barking up the street, and the neighbor was mowing his lawn. A group of deer fed on acorns passing the guy mowing is lawn at about 30 yards. They would look at him occasionally but basically ignored him. At one point they were 50 yards or so away from his yard. He took the bag off his mower and took a few steps into the woods to empty the bag. As soon as he stepped into the woods the reacted and took off. While he was where he was "supposed to be", he was not a threat. The minute his behavior changed and he left the bounds of his yard, the reacted.
Similarly I worked on a project that had been over run with deer at a training facility. Deer were in such bad shape there was an 8' browse line in the wooded area. Visitors to the facility would feed ice cream cones to the deer and they would eat out of their hands. They had almost become tame. When the grounds were sold to a developer, they were concerned about landscaping but also wanted a low-profile population control effort and our suburban bowhunting group was enlisted. Because the area was still used by the pubic, we set up rules that included all shots would be inside 20 yards from a treestand. For the first couple weeks deer were easy pickings but the quickly adapted. After a couple weeks you would walk within a few yards of a deer with no reaction, but once you climbed a tree they would disappear and started walking through the woods looking into trees. They quickly learned that humans on the ground were not a threat but those in a tree were a threat.
I'm not suggesting that suburban deer act at all like deer in the big woods. I am saying that deer are a very plastic species and given enough time will acclimate and change their behavior. There are simply different influences in different places.
Thanks,
Jack
Here is a couple interesting anecdotes I've posted before. I was archery hunting in the suburbs in a tree only a few yards off a homeowners back deck (this was part of a population control effort in the suburbs). Boys were playing basketball in the driveway out front. Dogs were barking up the street, and the neighbor was mowing his lawn. A group of deer fed on acorns passing the guy mowing is lawn at about 30 yards. They would look at him occasionally but basically ignored him. At one point they were 50 yards or so away from his yard. He took the bag off his mower and took a few steps into the woods to empty the bag. As soon as he stepped into the woods the reacted and took off. While he was where he was "supposed to be", he was not a threat. The minute his behavior changed and he left the bounds of his yard, the reacted.
Similarly I worked on a project that had been over run with deer at a training facility. Deer were in such bad shape there was an 8' browse line in the wooded area. Visitors to the facility would feed ice cream cones to the deer and they would eat out of their hands. They had almost become tame. When the grounds were sold to a developer, they were concerned about landscaping but also wanted a low-profile population control effort and our suburban bowhunting group was enlisted. Because the area was still used by the pubic, we set up rules that included all shots would be inside 20 yards from a treestand. For the first couple weeks deer were easy pickings but the quickly adapted. After a couple weeks you would walk within a few yards of a deer with no reaction, but once you climbed a tree they would disappear and started walking through the woods looking into trees. They quickly learned that humans on the ground were not a threat but those in a tree were a threat.
I'm not suggesting that suburban deer act at all like deer in the big woods. I am saying that deer are a very plastic species and given enough time will acclimate and change their behavior. There are simply different influences in different places.
Thanks,
Jack
