•How Deer Go Fishing – A deer will kill and eat fish by using its paws to disable fish such as trout. Next it will take the fish in its mouth, chew it and swallow it. Whitetails commonly eat fish up to 14-inches long.
•How a Deer Spots the Hunter – Deer can spot movement so well because they have the ability to focus on both nearby and distant objects at the same time. For instance, a deer can concentrate on what it’s eating, yet keep its eye out for predators at the same time. The deer’s eyes sit high and wide on its head, which allows a deer to see almost completely around itself.
•How Bucks Fight Back – When bucks fight, they most often lock antlers, push and shove. But in almost all other situations, the buck uses his sharp, slashing hoofs as his number one defense to strike and cut other deer, kill snakes and ward off predators.
•What You Can Learn about a Buck Deer – Although you can’t determine a buck’s age by his antlers, you can follow some general rules to approximate his age.
Small and narrow racks generally indicate a young deer, while wider and taller racks usually imply an older deer. The number of points a deer has on his rack may not represent the length of time the deer has lived. A 1½-year-old buck raised on good soil may have 8 points and possibly a 6- to 10-inch inside spread of the main beam. A 2½- to a 4-year-old buck often will have 8 points and measure 16 to 18 inches between the main beams. A 5½- to 6½-year-old buck may have an 18- to 20-inch inside spread of the main beam and sport 8 points or more.
However, after 6½ years, the size of the bucks’ antlers generally decreases. From studies done at Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama, scientists have learned that generally the availability of highly-nutritious food plays a larger role in antler development than any other factor.
•How Deer Eat –Deer browse, and when feeding, a mature deer breaks off twigs and branches and chops its food with its 24 grinding teeth. A deer chews its food only briefly before passing the food to its rumen, a storage compartment. Once the rumen fills up, the deer will move to heavy cover for protection to complete the process of chewing and digesting its food. Next it regurgitates the partially-digested material from the rumen, chews it briefly and swallows the food for a second time. Then the food passes through the deer’s 65-foot-long intestine where it’s digested.
Within 1½ days after the deer chews the food, this waste will have passed from the deer’s body.
•How and Why Deer Lures Work – A wide variety of scents, smells and sounds can attract deer, which are highly-curious animals that will come to investigate any new odor in their environment. But not all odors will attract deer at all times. Also, deer may not always come to investigate a new odor or lure in an area during daylight hours.
•Which Deer Use Rubs – When hunters see a deer rub in the woods, they often assume this rub has been made by and used by a buck. Although bucks most often make rubs, rubs can function as signposts or communication devices between the sexes. Does sometimes sniff, lick or even mark a buck’s rub with their foreheads.
•Which Deer Make Scrapes – Although most hunters believe only dominant bucks make scrapes, wildlife biologists have found indications that does also make scrapes sometimes, and this behavior isn’t limited to breeding season. The more scientists study the scraping behavior of deer, the more they realize how little they understand the social behavior of whitetails.
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