Understanding the Behaviors Deer

by Mitch Johnson

Some people believe that the deer can understand the danger of bullets, but that is not so always, as the deer are unaware of the danger of the bullet of the guns. But, any unusual noise is a danger signal, but most of the hunters do not believe that the deer can connect the sound of a gunshot with injury and death.

In my deer experienced, I have seen many deer of different kinds young and old. Sometime my trails lead me to many places and spend my time in the woods. I accompanied many hunters and many accompanied in the hunt as well.

That deer must have had similar experiences during his life, for the hunting method that I used is a more or less standard procedure. He must have had the experience of running from one danger only to run into another and yet, in this case, he was apparently unconcerned with anything other than the hunter who was on his trail. This action leads me to believe that deer do not expect danger at all times and that they make no plans for such encounters, but deal with each emergency as it develops. I do not believe that the old buck connected me with the danger, which he expected to follow his track, but considered me to be an entirely new danger. In any case, if deer have the power to reason intelligently, that old buck should never have allowed himself to get into any such predicament.

Many hunters think that deer are afraid of gun- fire, giving them credit for knowing that bullets come from guns and that these bullets can kill. This knowledge is far beyond a deers capability. I have seen one deer killed while another deer, not knowing just where the danger was located, stood around uncertain of what to do. I have seen a group of deer mill around bewildered while hunters shot eighteen futile bullets at them from a distance. I have undershot a deer, the bullet striking the ground beyond the deer, and the animal ran directly towards me, away from the place where the bullet struck. I fired five shots at a deer, which was crossing a field, and as soon as the deer had entered the woods, another deer crossed the field at the same place. I missed two shots at him and when he reached the edge of the field he stopped and looked back, as if to see what all of the noise was about. After a few experiences of this sort, it is hard to convince me that deer have much fear of gunfire. Of course, any unusual noise is a danger signal, but I do not believe that they connect the sound of a gunshot with injury and death. In fact, I doubt if deer have any conception of death.

When we hunt in the vicinity of a game reserve and the deer run into the reserve for safety, we are apt to assume that they know that they will be safe in the protected area. This may or may not be the case. It is probable that, in many cases, the reserve is the logical place for the deer to go and when they arrive there and find that the hunter does not follow them, they bed down for the day. I followed a large buck for six miles directly to a game reserve. A few days later I followed another from the same section of woods and he traveled in an entirely different direction for nearly the same distance and then took refuge in a large swamp. In both cases I am sure that the deer were unattached bucks in strange territory and that, when started, not having a doe to depend on for safety, they headed for their home range. Did their decisions result from careful thinking or did they act on instinct? I doubt if deer have any conception of death. We are apt to assume that they know that they will be safe in the protected area. This I have experienced several times.

Sometimes a hunter can lose the deer during the trailing, if the deer can considered him to be an entirely new danger. It is important for the hunter to know how to shadow himself from the deer when he trail the deer.
 

Mitch Johnson is a regular writer for http://www.best-scopes-n-binoculars.com/ , http://www.tipsforcamping.info/ , http://www.ezcampingguide.info/