NOW we're giving deer too much credit.....To think they remember anything.....well, anyway, let me explain. Deer (or any animal, for that matter) doesn't "remember".....they become conditioned. Remember Pavlov's dogs? They don't remember the bell means food, the become conditioned to it.

IMO, same same with a deer. If deer encounter human scent/activity in a certain area, they begin avoiding it. After avoiding it a couple times, they are conditioned, re-trained, if you will, to use another route. I don't personally believe they really know WHY they are using a different route, they just are. Animals don't have reasoning ability. If a deer encounters danger in a given tree, they will become conditioned to look into that tree. They don't remember that a big bad wolf was in that tree, they just become conditioned to check it out.

But either way, whether we call it memory or conditioning, it has, and will continue to, save an aweful lot of lives for the whitetail deer.