ORIGINAL: gri22ly
I will try to make it short, bucks spend10 months avoiding does, there patterns andhabits are opiset...The longer they live the more they change.....Thelittle 3 1/2 year olds are still in transition, there half way there. A truly mature buck relies and lives byhis noes....He doesn't wast hes time checking an area until all thedoes havemoved through and bedded down. Theres allot more to this but have Iproblems putting it down.
I have never thought of it like that, but it makes a lot of sense. Thanks for putting that out there. You've got my brain wheels spinning. Makes me wonder if the old bucks aren't just following the does scent and that makes them later, or if it is a learned trait over their years. Very interesting...
I have seen old bucks
WITH does that will follow from a distance behind the doe and use her to recon any area before he moved in, but during the seeking phase of the rut I have seen them on their feet moving alone... much more slowly than their 1.5-3.5 year old colleagues however.