Buck Behavior
10-31-2008, 01:57 PM
#1
Fork Horn
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2008
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Posts: 435
Buck Behavior
I have several recent pics over a scrape of multiple big bucks using this same scrape within minutes of each other. Is this common for big bucks to tolerate each other's company this close to the rut? I can post pics if you need to see.
10-31-2008, 03:39 PM
#2
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Trussville, AL
Posts: 171
RE: Buck Behavior
It is common for different deer (bucks and does) to visit a single scrape. Below is a condensed version of the results from a study done in GA on non-captive deer on a 3,460 acre study site. The full article can be read here.
The area of the two-year study (Sept. 1997-Feb. 1999) had been on a QDM program for the previous11 years where the younger bucks were protected and and a liberal doe harvest had been practiced. The area's rut generally takes place on the first two weeks of November. They monitored 6 different scrape locations using an 8mm camera (rigged with a floodlightwith a red lense cover,12-volt battery, and a motion-sensored tripper) to be able to monitor the areas 24 hours a day (since it was believed/known that most scrape visits occured in the darker hours).
The results found that:
[ul][*]85% of scrape activities occured during the night (very few visits during "hunting hours")[*]Many bucks worked a single scrape, and overall use (licking branch, pawing, urinating and/or rub-urinating) did not appear very intensive[*]Many of the bucks that used the scrapes were yearlings, and they worked the scrapes with nearly the same intensity as the older-aged classes.[*]None of the mature bucks (3.5+) that were harvested on this tract, in close proximity to the montiored scrapes, were never captured by the cameras visiting them. Some of them were harvested within 100 yards of the monitored sites which led the researchers to believe that they were receiving the information via olfactory senses by circling downwind of the sites.[*]Overhead branch marking was the most observed marking behavior by all visits where some type of marking tookplace. (Pawing and urinating occurred in less than half of all visits.)[*]Does frequently visited the monitored scrapes.[/ul]
Hope this enlightens you to scraing activity and answers your question.
The area of the two-year study (Sept. 1997-Feb. 1999) had been on a QDM program for the previous11 years where the younger bucks were protected and and a liberal doe harvest had been practiced. The area's rut generally takes place on the first two weeks of November. They monitored 6 different scrape locations using an 8mm camera (rigged with a floodlightwith a red lense cover,12-volt battery, and a motion-sensored tripper) to be able to monitor the areas 24 hours a day (since it was believed/known that most scrape visits occured in the darker hours).
The results found that:
[ul][*]85% of scrape activities occured during the night (very few visits during "hunting hours")[*]Many bucks worked a single scrape, and overall use (licking branch, pawing, urinating and/or rub-urinating) did not appear very intensive[*]Many of the bucks that used the scrapes were yearlings, and they worked the scrapes with nearly the same intensity as the older-aged classes.[*]None of the mature bucks (3.5+) that were harvested on this tract, in close proximity to the montiored scrapes, were never captured by the cameras visiting them. Some of them were harvested within 100 yards of the monitored sites which led the researchers to believe that they were receiving the information via olfactory senses by circling downwind of the sites.[*]Overhead branch marking was the most observed marking behavior by all visits where some type of marking tookplace. (Pawing and urinating occurred in less than half of all visits.)[*]Does frequently visited the monitored scrapes.[/ul]
Hope this enlightens you to scraing activity and answers your question.
