I don't study deer much anymore. Maybe I got my fill in college. It is not that there is not much left for me to learn. On the contrary, there is more now than ever before and the truth is, I have forgotten a great deal I learned in college. I just don't need to know much more technical/biological stuff. I see no reason to know that average fawn will have 300 spots or that twin fawns stand a good chance of having different sires. It doesn't matter to me in terms of hunting.

However we are learning more about deer today than ever before and it is all due to hunting. If we didn't hunt whitetail deer, we wouldn't care anything about them. If they didn't represent a significant financial impact, it would not matter when the rut peaks in Central Canada. That would be comparable to knowing Canada is an Indian word meaning big village. Who cares? And a tremedous amount of the research is due to the quest for large antlers. Wouldn it not be easier to produce inexpensive replica antlers we could hang on our walls?

But it is through all of the biological research that we better learn how to manage deer. Proper deer management is not always in tune with hunter wishes. For the most part, a hunter wants to see a buck with big, multi-tined antlers everytime they go hunting. But management is based solidly on four factors. It must be biologically sound, ecologially sound, economically sound and meet hunter desires.

That is a tough schedule to follow, sometimes impossible especially when a large number of hunters don't today, even know the difference between antlers and horns. It is the more informed hunter, the one who reads and watches, studies and learns about deer that is the better hunter when it comes to management.

So maybe I should start studying again.

Just something I was thinking about.