Deer Scents; What Deer Use Them For
This is from my book The Complete Whitetail Addict's Manual, it is copyrighted.
Using Scents to Attract Whitetails
Attracting with ScentsWhen you are using food, scents, calls, rattling or decoys to attract animals there are two things to remember:
1. The best way to get an animal to come to you is by being in a place it is used to, comfortable with and going to. It's much easier to get the animal to come to you if it routinely uses the area. If you are not in a regularly used area then the animal should feel secure in the area, which should provide concealment or nearby escape cover. If neither one of these apply then you should be in a travel lane, or in a feeding area the animal is going to. Why should the deer come to you if it knows what it wants is in another location? 2. Using the best hunting techniques won't help if you produce or leave a sight, scent or sound that alarms the animals, or alerts them of your presence. Be careful to take precautions to avoid detection and go completely unnoticed when you hunt. Attracting With Scents
Scents are one of the most widely used methods of attracting deer. Manufacturers have responded to demand by providing a wide range of products in different forms; sprays, liquids, gels and solids. There are buck, buck-in-rut, doe, and doe-in- urine scents; forehead, tarsal, metatarsal and interdigital scents; food, curiosity and secret formula scents. Many hunters use fox, coyote, mink, raccoon and skunk scents, as either cover or curiosity lures. Others use unnatural or human scents to block deer from using escape trails. This vast array of scents can be confusing if you don't know which scents to use, or when to use them.
Types of Scents
Deer scents fall into different categories based on how they are used and how deer respond to them. These categories are; Recognition/Trailing, Sex, Territorial/Dominance, Food, Curiosity, and Blocking. Recognition/Trailing scents are present all year long and can be used all year. Sex scents are most prominent during the rut and can be used during any part of it. Territorial and Dominance scents are most prevalent during the rut and should be used then to be most effective. Food, Curiosity and Blocker scents can be used all year long. Many of these scents fall into more than one category and can be used for different purposes. They can all be used effectively to hunt deer, if used properly and at the right time.
Deer Pheromones
Deer pheromones, the scents given off by deer, are used as a means of communication. Pheromones serve to stimulate a behavioral response in another animal. Whitetail deer pheromones are present in the forehead, interdigital, tarsal and metatarsal glands, while estrogen and testosterone are found in the urine.
There may also be pheromones associated with the nasal, pre-orbital, Preputial and salivary glands. Many of these scents are used in combination during self impregnation (rub-urination), and sign post marking (rubs, scrapes) and are interpreted by individual sexes and age classes differently. When used by themselves these scents may be interpreted differently than when they are used in combination with another scent or scents.
Recognition/Trailing Scents
Tarsal scent is used in combination with urine as the primary recognition scent in whitetails. This scent is both sex and age specific, which means that deer encountering tarsal scent from another deer can determine the sex and the age of the animal by the scent. Tarsal is used in combination with urine during rub-urination all year long. All deer rub-urinate, often just after rising from their beds. Bucks rub-urinate more frequently during the rut while making scrapes. Rub-urination is used by moose (possibly elk) in response to danger - probably as an alarm signal. Deer often sniff and lick each other's tarsal area during social grooming, for identification, and to reinforce the social hierarchy. Because of this the deer know the smell of all the animals in their areas.
The Metatarsal gland is largest in mule deer, next largest in blacktails and smallest in whitetails. It's been suggested that blacktails and possibly mule deer use it when alarmed to express danger. It's not totally understood in whitetails.
Interdigital scent is how deer track other deer. Does use it to locate their fawns, bucks use it to track does. The scent of each deer is so specific that an animal can track one individual deer, no matter how many others are in the area. Because scent molecules evaporate at different rates, an animal can also determine which direction the other is traveling.
Forehead scent is used as a recognition and dominance scent. Bucks take part in social grooming prior to the rut, sniffing and licking the forehead and tarsal area. Once the sparring and fighting begins dominance is established, and the bucks recognize each other by scent and associate the scent with the social level of the buck that it came from. They also recognize the scent of other bucks once signpost marking begins, and they know which rubs and which overhanging branches at scrapes are used by which bucks. After being threatened or attacked subdominant bucks soon realize they should not be in areas near a dominant buck and its rubs and scrapes.
Because recognition and trailing scents are present all year they can be used any time during the rut, or any time of the year, without fear of alarming deer. However, forehead scent is most prevalent during the rut and is more effective at that time. Because deer are curious about their home range and often exert dominance (even does) in their core area, they investigate any new scent to find out which deer is leaving it.
Sex Scents
High amounts of testosterone in urine signals a buck's sexual readiness to does. Estrogen in the urine of a doe signals sexual readiness to bucks. Both buck testosterone and doe estrogen levels rise during the rut. Bucks readily respond to estrus urine, or doe in heat scents, soon after they shed their velvet through the second and possibly the third estrus, which may occur in January, even in northern latitudes. Because bucks are curious, estrogen can be used anytime of the year to attract them.
Does move a lot when they are in heat, sometimes traveling outside their core areas, possibly in search of healthy dominant bucks to breed with. It has been suggested that does can determine the physical health of the buck by the amount of protein in its urine. The doe may choose the buck it breeds with by the combination of the protein, testosterone and tarsal from rub-urination. Testosterone scents may attract does to a particular area, in turn attracting bucks because the does are there. Bucks may respond to testosterone out of curiosity, dominance or territoriality.
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