Radio tracking deer studies
 

I have often heard about deer being studied by radio tracking. I have seen a few articles written in mags. recapping the results. I have been unable to find info on the actual studies. Are these studies ever made public? where can I find them?

RE: Radio tracking deer studies
 

http://www.deerchannel.com/camera on a deer best I can do right now for ya pal.

T

RE: Radio tracking deer studies
 

I googled "radio telemetry deer" and got references to quite a few studies by game commissions and universities.

RE: Radio tracking deer studies
 

Try this link.

http://www.uwex.edu/ces/ag/issues/fmd/mathews_CWD_FINAL.pdf


I found it when I got alot of pictures of this guy last year.

RE: Radio tracking deer studies
 

The new field and stream mag. had an article on deer stuff (sight, hearing, etc.) and in the article they where using collared deer, etc.
Try googling some of the magazines or colleges that get grant money etc..

RE: Radio tracking deer studies
 

I believe Penn State University does quite a bit of this tracking for the Pa Game Commision.

RE: Radio tracking deer studies
 

MM:

D&DH did an article on this very thing a few months back. They chronicled buck movement to determine how far they traveled in a given time period.

They used (I think) 5 areas of the country.....and monitored different age class deer to come to their findings. It seems the older a deer gets.....the smaller his core area becomes. It was also interesting to note that a mature buck's core area shifts from year to year....if only by a few hundred yards.

The disparity in "home ranges" of a 2.5yr old v. a 4.5yr old and older was astounding. It's no wonder (in my eyes) more juveniles get killed (ASIDE form the fact that, on the surface, we all know there's more of them). What "I" took from the study is......unless you have access to a really mature buck's home range/core area......your chances of killing him are VERY low (this sounds like a no brainer.....but if you think he's gonna travel a great distance....you're probably mistaken. Their home range/core areas are REALLY small in some instances). They can hide out in some REALLY small tracts. You may have one on a tract you're hunting....and be overlooking the area he's utilizing.

We're talking about areas of LESS than 40 acres in many cases (for a mature buck's CORE area).

RE: Radio tracking deer studies
 

That backs up the concept of a dominant buckhaving his primary scrapes near his core area. Hence less travel.;)

RE: Radio tracking deer studies
 

It's just a theory of mine, EI....but where "I" hunt.....there's NO REASON for a mature buck to travel very far, at all. He has more does than he can possibly service in his core, here.

So....if you're not lucky enough to have access to his core.....you're SOL. You either have to hope another moves in to take the one you took's place (a juvenile from another area.....which is entirely possible/likely).....OR....wait for the juveniles, there, to age up.....and hope they make that area THEIR home range/core.

The theory of bucks traveling great distances (mature bucks) in areas of high deer density......IMO is not a valid approach. They have NO need to travel, here.

I honestly feel there are slammers who live and die in the parks system adjacent to my hunting lands (230+ acres + adjoining farms that don't allow hunting......comprising +/- 1 sq mi.).....that are never seen by humans.

RE: Radio tracking deer studies
 

I totally agree. I think this could bethe reason why Isee VERY FEW really good bucks where I hunt. They just don't need to wander around because there are so many doe in the area. Hell, they don't even need to leave "my" beautifulthicket,except to feed and drink at night. The doe are in there heavy. I love this pic!:D

RE: Radio tracking deer studies
 

Yes Penn State University has done quite a few radio tracking studies for the PA Game Commission in the past years. They even did a hunter study where they had hunters with GPS's and tracked how far Hunters went off into the woods and were able to compare where the hunters were and where the majority of the deer were. Very interesting findings.

Here is a link to some of the research projects done by PSU. http://pacfwru.cas.psu.edu/

RE: Radio tracking deer studies
 

Jawshooter was involved in some radio collar studies when he was in school for his wildlife management degree. I'll tell you what, the distance they are willing to travel to yard in northern areas during the winter was shocking to me. I'll see if I can get him on this thread to share what he learned but I believe I remember him saying they had some deer travel more than 50 miles to get to specific yarding areas in the Adirondacks.

RE: Radio tracking deer studies
 

RJ....

Before implementing my mineral sites.....I read a study of deer travel that showed radio collared deer traveling over 2 miles to go to a natural mineral site, DAILY.

That's why I don't put much stock in seeing EVERY buck I see at my mineral sites, during hunting season.

I was genuinely shocked to know they'd travel that distance to get the minerals they needed.......and it's what made me decide to put them out.

RE: Radio tracking deer studies
 

I also understood at Penn State they also allowed people into their penned deer habitat and tracked them via electronics and watched as the mature animals skirted the people whom never saw them. Somehow they were able to watch the electronics on a monitor or something like that. I don't remember where I got the information so it could be total bunk.

RE: Radio tracking deer studies
 

Man... Has your tone changed over the last couple years :D;)

RE: Radio tracking deer studies
 

Actually...it hasn't.;)

If you'll read my previous replies....I also noted the D&DH study that says these mature animals don't travel great distances. You'll also see that I said if you didn't have access to their home ranges/core areas.....you were SOL.

In the case of my hunting area (and moreso the areas I DON'T have access to).....my outlook is consistent. IF they're in the areas I have access to.....I think I'd see them OR get photographic evidence of their existence. I stand by that.

I think it'sa cop out to tell a man there are slammers in his woods (that he hunts).....he just isn't doing the things necessary to see/hunt them. I just think he might not have access to the areas where they are.

Are there slammers in NC? Sure ("slammer" being "relative"). Are they in the woods I hunt?

Good question. But you can't, with a straight face, say that they ARE "there". You just can't.

RE: Radio tracking deer studies
 

I wasn't saying that... I was more or less poking a little fun at you for all of your claims in the past of knowingYOUR deer andYOUR herd..... Now you admit maybe you don't know it like you used to say.

That's all.

I know my local properties pretty well... But know there are deer in my areas that I have never saw. Shed hunting proves this to me every year. No cam pics and no stand or glassing sightings.... But yet, I find their sheds.
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RE: Radio tracking deer studies
 

here is some more info from the PSU Deer research facility website. http://www.das.psu.edu/deer/

RE: Radio tracking deer studies
 

For the life of me....I still fail to see the inconsistency you cite. I DO think I know the herd I hunt. If they're not on the properties I hunt....there's no way in hell I could KNOW them. Never claimed to.

I cite the fact that I've NEVER seen a buck in the wild.....(for the sake of this discussion we'll say a "shooter") that I hadn't previously seen on trail cam. Is there one out there?

Anything's possible, I suppose. If that's "inconsistent" with my previous outlook.....then I'll cop to that. Is he FOR SURE out there? No one can say.

RE: Radio tracking deer studies
 

More proof of what I have always believed. Deer/Bucks can, and will, show up when they want to. There does not have to be a rhyme or reason. It is just a fact. Old mossy horns may be 2 miles away the night before you go to your stand. He may just be under your stand by 9:00AM.

LT

RE: Radio tracking deer studies
 

Yes, I believe that as a buck gets older his core area gets smaller. I also believe he becomes more elusive and nocturnal as he ages as well.

Where I have to disagree is in the belief that they can't live right under our noses in the areas that we heavily hunt/scout/live without us knowing it.

I hunt about a third of the days of a ninety day season. I see a lot of younger deer on a routine and repaeat basis. But there are those magical days, usually after a multi day inclement weather event but when the temps are still cold, that all kinds of deer show up, many of them mature, that I have never seen before, either in person or ona trail camera.

It is worth noting that the above citings are independent of the rut where I think most of us acknowledge a good percent (not all) of mature deer expand their core area. I am talking about late season way after the rut.

Then there is the occasional "large to very large" shed that I find that is unlike anything I have seen on a deer the prior season. Where did it come from if they have a small core area but yet can't live right under our noses?

If you still don't think they can live right under your nose, ponder this. When out scouting,hunting or whatever you may be doing in the woods,do you see all or even most of the raccoons, coyotes, possums, badgers, skunks, bobcats, porcipines,etc, etc. that calls your hunting area home?
I would venture to say very few.

These animals may be dumber than us and it may not be rocket science, but they are after all referred to as "wildlife" and have survived the intrusion of man for a reason regardless of whether its intelligence or instinct.

RE: Radio tracking deer studies
 

jack:

Understand where I'm coming from by knowing that the lands I hunt hold ZERO bedding areas.......and ZERO "ag crop fields". I'm huning small parcels of land in a high deer density area.

So....I get to see the deer that venture THROUGH the land I hunt.....or travel TO said land when the mast crops are producing. I see the same deer over and over again, all season.

Are there deer that come into these areas I've never seen? It just hasn't happened. When it does....I'll post up the sighting. What's "out there" in the lands I have no access to......I couldn't venture to guesstimate. Don't have a clue.

I'm in my woods +/- 50 sits per season.....and my trailcam is out there, pre-season, for a little over a month. When I speak of high deer density areas.....I'm talking >100 deer/sq. mi.....and likely more like 150/sq. mi. .

It's only my theory.....but I think the mature bucks don't HAVE to travel very far in this circumstance. They have EVERYTHING they need......in areas they can't be legally hunted. Do they (mature bucks) sometimes frequent the land I DO have access to? Certainly. I know AT LEAST three have. I haven't seen one of them, from stand, but I have photos of him.

To better aid in explaing this.....I saw +/- 17 different racked bucks in the summer and fall of the '06 season. TWO of these deer were 3.5 yrs or older. I saw exactlySEVEN different racked bucks in the summer/fall of the '07 season....and only FOUR during the actual huntingseason.....(withonly one of them being older than 1.5yrs).

Like I said.....my theory is....they don't NEED to travel into the places I can hunt them. What lurks in the areas I can't hunt them..........I have no clue.

RE: Radio tracking deer studies
 

I honestly believe that the majority of people on this forum have 3.5+ year old animals in their hunting properties that they don't know of. Perfect example.............

Last year there were 5 differentbucks on my property that were seen during archery season that were 100"+ deer. The buck I killed was the smallest of them. 2x of them were seen in areas less thanhundred yards away from where I had a corn pile and camera setup for the entire summer. I only got one of the deer on camera and that didn't even happen till 11/8. My buck from last year specifically was killed maybe 200 yards away from one of the food plots that got hammered the hardest last year and that plot had a camera in it as well. Never saw him before that morning that I let the air out of him.

Edit - Jeff, didn't you say the poachers shot a nice 8 or 10 pointer off the same property you hunted last year? Did you see him or know of him?

RE: Radio tracking deer studies
 

I'm in my third year of putting out game cams on relatively SMALL properties, RJ. If there's a 3.5 yr old out there.....I'd "expect" to have gotten a photo of him in at least a previous season......or the current one.

BUT....in thinking about this more....and realizing that 2.5yr olds travel more than their older counterparts.....I'm not above thinking there might be bucks that move into an area for that season....that I haven't seen (how could I have?).

Like I said.....I may change my tune on this....and if I'm wrong, I'll admit it. It's just that .....after 48 sits and weeks of game cams....on small parcels......I'd"think" I would get a glimpse of him.

I actually hope I am wrong. I'd like to have my picture taken with the first "ghost" I see;).

Nope. They shot him off land I don't have access to......and they don't have LEGAL access to it, either.

RE: Radio tracking deer studies
 

ive seen one in real life, right off the highway with a neck collar. pretty neat

RE: Radio tracking deer studies
 

I remembered this as well and looked it up. It wasn't the same property but a couple over. Here is the quote.

RE: Radio tracking deer studies
 

The 10-pointer ......I saw at our state's deer hunting expo. He was a nice deer.

As the crow flies......where they "probably" shot this deer is less than 1 mi. The closest to anything I USED to (and still do)have access to is probably .5 mile.

NOW....I have access to where I "think" that deer was taken. We'll see what the new land holds as the years unfold. Like I said....I hope I'm all wrong about this.