#1861264 - 03/29/10 08:37 AM
REACTIONS...............?
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Bottom Hunter
16 Point
Registered: 12/29/06
Posts: 15481
Loc: Hatchie Bottoms
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Do you think that it is possible for deer to completely ignore human activity if they are exposed to it daily and have not experienced any ill effects, such as seeing other deer get shot or even hear shots fired in association with the activity. This is not about pen raised deer.
I know that deer will stand idley by as farmers go about there daily routine and often times they won't even look up as people stop on road sides to gaulk at them......
But, would there ever be a time when the deer would basically walk around someone or allow someone to walk past them without feeling the least bit "uneasy".......
is this possible, in your opinion....?
Bh
Edited by Bottom Hunter (03/29/10 08:38 AM)
_________________________
There are some people who always seem angry and continuously look for conflict.
Walk away; the battle they are fighting is not with you, but with themselves.
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#1861269 - 03/29/10 08:42 AM
Re: REACTIONS...............?
[Re: Bottom Hunter]
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Diehard Hunter
12 Point
Registered: 08/01/08
Posts: 5232
Loc: East Tennessee
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Absolutely. Ever been to Cades Cove? I did work at Bluegrass Army Depot in KY. It was absolutely polluted with deer. they ignored everything you did. I was able to capture any deer i wanted to with a dartgun because they would stand still as I approached, and then would not run more than a few yards after I darted them. The dart gun was loud, it used a .22 blank to fire the dart. Often times i would be collaring a deer and others would approach out of curiosity. These deer were hunted only 3 or 4 days per year from sunrise to noon each day.
_________________________
One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Aldo Leopold
Don't argue with an idiot He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.
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#1861429 - 03/29/10 10:24 AM
Re: REACTIONS...............?
[Re: Diehard Hunter]
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BSK
Jerkasourous of the non-typical kind
Non-Typical
Registered: 03/11/99
Posts: 59548
Loc: Nashville, TN
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Of course. I've seen example after example of deer that interact with humans regularly quickly identifying those human activities that are harmless versus dangerous, completely ignoring those activities that are harmless while freaking out over activities they believe are dangerous.
In addition, considering deer have noses easily as good as a blood-hound, I've watched deer become "conditioned" to an individual person's scent, ignoring that person's fresh scent as long as it is associated with benign activity.
I've also seen deer learn to recognize individual people, even at great distance, displaying no fear of that person, yet showing great fear upon observing a different person.
_________________________
"Know where you stand, and stand there" --Jesuit Father Daniel Berrigan
"There is no reasoning someone out of a position he has not reasoned himself into." --Clive James
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#1861456 - 03/29/10 10:45 AM
Re: REACTIONS...............?
[Re: BSK]
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BigWes50
10 Point
Registered: 03/04/07
Posts: 3207
Loc: Chattanooga, TN
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Of course. I've seen example after example of deer that interact with humans regularly quickly identifying those human activities that are harmless versus dangerous, completely ignoring those activities that are harmless while freaking out over activities they believe are dangerous.
In addition, considering deer have noses easily as good as a blood-hound, I've watched deer become "conditioned" to an individual person's scent, ignoring that person's fresh scent as long as it is associated with benign activity.
I've also seen deer learn to recognize individual people, even at great distance, displaying no fear of that person, yet showing great fear upon observing a different person.
What he said! I've done alot of urban and suburban hunting in the last 3 years and it amazes me how deer adapt to people!
_________________________
Just as the deer can suddenly materialize in the woods, "Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect" (Matthew 24:44)
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#1861504 - 03/29/10 11:20 AM
Re: REACTIONS...............?
[Re: BigWes50]
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Football Hunter
18 Point
Registered: 10/22/07
Posts: 24550
Loc: Wilson Co/Perry Co
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yes,use to have a spot right behind someones house,well a couple hundred yards.The wind usually blew from the house to a bean field deer liked to feed in,they got use to the human smell I guess,you wanted to hunt that spot with the "wrong "wind.
_________________________
The best day to plant a tree,IS TODAY!
You wont know,if you dont go!
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#1861607 - 03/29/10 12:31 PM
Re: REACTIONS...............?
[Re: Football Hunter]
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Pursuit Hunter
8 Point
Registered: 10/01/08
Posts: 2084
Loc: Way out there
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I have a funny story about that. Several years ago, I was at Radnor Lake (a park near Nashville that doesn't allow hunting) doing some photography work. I saw some deer a couple hundred yards away and decided to sneak up on them and take their picture.
Well, I used all my sneaky skills and got about 40 yards away. As I was getting ready to take their picture, two ladies in gaudy colored walking suits, talking loudly, came walking down the trail right past me. I was gesturing to them to stop and be quiet, but they apparently din't see me, or didn't care.
Anyway, the walked right up to the deer and started talking to them like they were pets. I felt like such an idiot! Those deer have no more fear of humans than they do of martians.
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#1861934 - 03/29/10 04:54 PM
Re: REACTIONS...............?
[Re: Pursuit Hunter]
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BSK
Jerkasourous of the non-typical kind
Non-Typical
Registered: 03/11/99
Posts: 59548
Loc: Nashville, TN
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I've experienced the same thing Pursuit Hunter, but what I found fascinating was the deer's "spatial" sense.
I was photographing deer around the Mammoth Cave National Park Vistors Center, where tourists feed deer out of their hands. Obviously, this provided many opportunities to photograph deer at very close range. However, as I followed a group of deer as they wandered away from the Visitors Center, I began to notice they were getting more nervous about my presence (I was still following and photographing them). The farther the deer moved from the Center the more distance they kept between me and themselves. Eventually, once we were several hundreds yards away and out of eyesight of the Center, the deer were back to being wild deer. Any movement on my part, even from several hundred yards distance, caused raised tails, snorts, and bolting by the deer.
Those "tame" deer were only tame where they knew humans were no threat. Once they were distant from that location, they were back to being completely wild deer that would accept no human presence.
_________________________
"Know where you stand, and stand there" --Jesuit Father Daniel Berrigan
"There is no reasoning someone out of a position he has not reasoned himself into." --Clive James
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#1861954 - 03/29/10 05:09 PM
Re: REACTIONS...............?
[Re: Pursuit Hunter]
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ghosthunter
10 Point
Registered: 11/30/04
Posts: 3446
Loc: chattanooga
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I have a funny story about that. Several years ago, I was at Radnor Lake (a park near Nashville that doesn't allow hunting) doing some photography work. I saw some deer a couple hundred yards away and decided to sneak up on them and take their picture.
Well, I used all my sneaky skills and got about 40 yards away. As I was getting ready to take their picture, two ladies in gaudy colored walking suits, talking loudly, came walking down the trail right past me. I was gesturing to them to stop and be quiet, but they apparently din't see me, or didn't care.
Anyway, the walked right up to the deer and started talking to them like they were pets. I felt like such an idiot! Those deer have no more fear of humans than they do of martians.  Sounds like something I would do.
_________________________
it's a long way to the top if ya wanna rock 'n' roll
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#1862366 - 03/29/10 08:35 PM
Re: REACTIONS...............?
[Re: ghosthunter]
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Coach
16 Point
Registered: 12/02/07
Posts: 10869
Loc: Pall Mall, TN and Dexter, MI
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People in Michigan's Upper Peninsula hand feed them in the winter...
_________________________
"Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face." Mike Tyson Dean Business Supply, Llc http://www.adam4d.com
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#1862381 - 03/29/10 08:41 PM
Re: REACTIONS...............?
[Re: Coach]
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Beekeeper
Good ol' Boys "Team Buckcreek"
16 Point
Registered: 08/26/09
Posts: 10948
Loc: McMinn Co. Tennessee
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I have noticed the deer around my house will just watch me if I am on the deck but if I walk out in the driveway the run. I don't hunt right at the house but my first stand is only about 100 yards away.
_________________________
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
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