Not to highjack this thread, but it has me wondering. Do you think unless a Deer had a specific reason to associate the smell of jerky with danger they would be alarmed by it? Or do you think they have the intellectual where-with-all to know what meat smells like and associate it with predators? Do you think as hunters we tend to give them too much credit for "being smart"? They clearly learn from past experience, and their senses are above reproach, but I suspect we give them more credit than they actually deserve in the "smarts" department. Thoughts?
There is no way in ever knowing for sure, but i personally would rather give them far too much credit than under estimate them. I'm not saying that i know for certain that they can associate the smell of meat with predators, but it does raise a good point, so rather than blow it off i choose to just avoid bringing meat with me on a hunt.