What's the chance?

[tellico4x4]

of 50/50 split of pics being buck & doe? Recently discovered the Statistics section of my Tatacam account. Have had 3 cams setup on traditional scrapes adjacent to bedding areas, and they are pretty well dispersed across 3500 acres. Just completed identifying buck & doe pics for the period of Nov 1 thru today Jan 20. 1346 pics came out exactly 673 each!

 

[backyardtndeer]

If the identification software is similar to the stealth cam software, you can count on more of those actually being bucks. The software is cool, but really isn't quite there yet. A good portion of the young bucks we get pics of are tagged as does.

 

[tellico4x4]

If the identification software is similar to the stealth cam software, you can count on more of those actually being bucks. The software is cool, but really isn't quite there yet. A good portion of the young bucks we get pics of are tagged as does.

The software doesn't automatically tag, I had to go thru individually and do myself. If I couldn't positively identify what it was I deleted the pic.

 

[backyardtndeer]

The software doesn't automatically tag, I had to go thru individually and do myself. If I couldn't positively identify what it was I deleted the pic.

The software for the stealth cam automatically tags/IDs animals and it does id buck or doe, but like I said, on little bucks it is often wrong. It also will id partial deer as does.

Still helpful data for sure.

 

[BSK]

For some strange reason, it always freaks me out when numbers fall on a perfect hundreds number, or exactly the same number as something previous. My instant reaction is that I counted something wrong.

 

[BSK]

But I'm surprised a scrape cam came up 50/50 bucks:does. My scrape cams usually run bucks 3:1 over does.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

I just got 2 Tactacam SK's for Christmas. Can't wait to get them deployed and play around with this stuff. Probably won't utilize the data plans maybe 6 months out of the year - March-may for turkeys and October-December for deer

 

[tellico4x4]

For some strange reason, it always freaks me out when numbers fall on a perfect hundreds number, or exactly the same number as something previous. My instant reaction is that I counted something wrong.

It does me too but I had been watching it change each time I updated tags.

 

[tellico4x4]

But I'm surprised a scrape cam came up 50/50 bucks:does. My scrape cams usually run bucks 3:1 over does.

All 3 of those spots are mere feet from thick big bedding areas. Does live in them year round & bucks cycle thru in fall imo.

 

[BSK]

All 3 of those spots are mere feet from thick big bedding areas. Does live in them year round & bucks cycle thru in fall imo.

Interesting. Thanks for the response.

 

[BSK]

Not to get too far off topic, but something to think about and keep track of Tellico4x4:

I keep records on "what a camera is pointed it" and then compare data between major categories. Doing this can illuminate just how "powerful" what a camera is point at can be. Here's some data from this year:

Camera pointed into food plot
bucks 1,693
does 2,697
fawns 1,264
adult sex ratio (does/buck) 1.6
fawn recruitment 46.9%

Cameras point at isolated scrape in the woods
bucks 567
does 232
fawns 111
adult sex ratio (does/buck) 0.4
fawn recruitment 47.8%

Cameras point at scrape in old road/trail
bucks 776
does 327
fawns 155
adult sex ratio (does/buck) 0.4
fawn recruitment 47.4%

Cameras point at scrape on edge of food plot
bucks 1,149
does 711
fawns 346
adult sex ratio (does/buck) 0.6
fawn recruitment 45.3%


Notice the huge difference between adult sex ratio for cameras pointed in food plots versus any of the scrape set-ups. I still use all of the data for calculating my adult sex ratio, but I also track each of these categories separately. Sometimes, one changes from year to year dramatically, while others don't. Just interseting to keep track of and can be an eye-opener about sex ratios. However, what really freaks me out is how close all of the fawn recruitment numbers are between categories. THAT never happens. Until this year!

 

[tellico4x4]

Amazing how consistent that recruitment is

 

[tellico4x4]

Soooo, do you total all those numbers across locations or average them for final numbers?

What about observation data as well?

 

[BSK]

Soooo, do you total all those numbers across locations or average them for final numbers?

What about observation data as well?

Yes, I total them all up and get an over-all property sex ratio. Is it accurate? Who knows. But as long as the cameras are set-up consistently (about the same percentage pointed at the same things each year), the trend will be accurate.

 

[BSK]

What about observation data as well?

I do each separately. Camera data and observation data. However, observation data is a much smaller data set and limited to specific times of the day and dates. Cameras run 24/7 for months on end and the data will be much better. In fact, I often point out how observation data for a year is completely opposite of the camera data, but if you do each as statistical means, they smooth and look similar.