Another strange behavior note

[deerhunter10]

we see it quite a bit at a few places where we hunt. if its the food that deer want they will gather this time of year. what part of the state are you in?

 

[Bobs8pt]

docpoco I agree with you, You do not see a lot of hearding in these parts due to the mild winters and plenty of food. I also saw some hearding going on in the late season. maybe it is a sign of whats to come from mother nature.

 

[Winchester]

Likely the lack of food available outside the fields where the deer were! I know quality food is very scarce here this year, going to be a long Winter for the critters.

 

[Bone Collector]

I see that off 96 on my way into Franklin all the time.

If there are ag fields, limited or no hunting pressure, and it is late season, you will see a bunch of them out there.

 

[Columbia Scott]

I always see deer concentrate in large numbers after hunting season. Up North it's called yarding. It has something to do with predators. They will even starve themselves to death when food is available.

 

[Winchester]

Deer do yard up in the North, but its always been my understanding they do it for protection from both predators and starvation??

 

[BSK]

Yarding behavior is about snow depth. Deer yard in areas where snow regularly becomes so deep that movement is difficult or impossible. Considering the small footprint of a deer's hooves, their feet go right through snow (they have no ability to stay up on top of deep snow). Trying to force their way through deep snow is incredibly physically stressful, and escaping a predator through deep snow is impossible.

By yarding, large groups of deer trample down the snow in a central core area, with "spoke trails" leading out to food sources. Using these trails greatly reduces physical demands of finding limited food, which greatly increases survival (winter survival in these brutally cold far North environments is all about energy conservation). Although yarding and using well-defined trails does concentrate deer, making the job of finding deer much easier for predators, at least deer can run away from predators in a deer yard.

In addition, deer yards are highly traditional and almost always occur in thick, lower-growing evergreen groves which block wind and snow, such as hemlock swamps. However, the traditional nature of deer yard locations can produce severely over-browsed habitat in the core of the yard, as during the long winters deer are eventually relegated to eating anything they can reach, even stripping the bark off younger trees (an extremely poor-quality food).

 

[Winchester]

Yarding behavior is about snow depth. Deer yard in areas where snow regularly becomes so deep that movement is difficult or impossible. Considering the small footprint of a deer's hooves, their feet go right through snow (they have no ability to stay up on top of deep snow). Trying to force their way through deep snow is incredibly physically stressful, and escaping a predator through deep snow is impossible.

By yarding, large groups of deer trample down the snow in a central core area, with "spoke trails" leading out to food sources. Using these trails greatly reduces physical demands of finding limited food, which greatly increases survival (winter survival in these brutally cold far North environments is all about energy conservation). Although yarding and using well-defined trails does concentrate deer, making the job of finding deer much easier for predators, at least deer can run away from predators in a deer yard.

In addition, deer yards are highly traditional and almost always occur in thick, lower-growing evergreen groves which block wind and snow, such as hemlock swamps. However, the traditional nature of deer yard locations can produce severely over-browsed habitat in the core of the yard, as during the long winters deer are eventually relegated to eating anything they can reach, even stripping the bark off younger trees (an extremely poor-quality food).

Great explanation BSK. Ive watched a couple of documentaries on this and its amazing how many deer will sometimes yard up together. Makes shed hunting pretty easy however! :D Im sure glad we don't have those brutal winters here!!

 

[BSK]

One of the more interesting behaviors concerning deer yards is their traditional nature. Mother does will teach their fawns where the mother's ancestral yard is. Then, later in life, no matter how far they travel from that ancestral yard in spring/summer/fall, those deer will go back to their ancestral yard. Over decades, some of these deer hereditary lines have moved many miles away, yet they still migrate back to their ancestral yards in winter. I've seen radio-collar studies that found some deer traveling 70-100 miles to their ancestral yard, returning that distance back to their spring/summer/fall range in spring.

 

[Winchester]

Very interesting BSK, never knew that! Makes you wonder what other if any ancestral traits could be instilled in fawns?

 

[BSK]

Makes you wonder what other if any ancestral traits could be instilled in fawns?

I've seen some research into that topic, and some of the results are intriguing, although highly controversial. One of the more interesting suggestions was that it's possible that estrus timing in a particular doe is linked to her personal conception date. In essence, if she was conceived late, she will enter estrus late throughout her life. The evidence presented to support this theory was fascinating, but really flew in the face of other research findings.