ORIGINAL: John Deer

I attended a whitetail seminar just last night and one of the topics was moon phase. They showed a graph that listed new moon, first quarter, full moon, and last quarter. They stated that the light from the moon affects melatonin (sp?) output. Melatonin affects the sex drive of the deer and therefore, moon phase would in turn affect sex drive of deer which affects how much they're up on their feet. Supposedly, the less light the moon gives off, the less the sex drive of the deer, and the less deer activity we would expect to see. They said that the effects of themoon phase on melatonin output are about a week delayed. So, the most activity would be expected to be between a full moon and the last quarter. The least amount of activity was observed between new moon and first qaurter. They refrenced Studies done by David Morris (of Tecomate, South Texas), and Charlie Alsheimer. It seems to me that in my experience in the field, these things seem to hold some water. I believe I've seen more deer activity toward the last quarter moon phase when I've been in the woods. just my .02.