2 weeks Ago By By STEVE SHERK Jr. Special to The Era
My favorite animal is the whitetail buck. I’ve probably said that before, but over the years as I’ve grown as a deer hunter, the behavior and biology of the whitetail buck fascinates me more than any other animal. One thing I’ve learned is that every buck is an individual when it comes to daily living and tendencies.
They do a lot of the same things as other bucks, yet there are many differences between from one buck to the next. Winter is a unique and stressful time for whitetail bucks. Survival is tough and each buck has its own way to get by through the winter months.
What I’ve found quite interesting is that whitetail bucks tend to have core areas for every season of the year. Where a buck lives during the fall is not always the same turf he inhabits during the winter months. This behavior can also be relevant to where a buck lives during the spring and summer.
For every season, a buck has specific needs in order to survive. Winter is the hardest season for survival. Bucks are extremely stressed after the breeding season.
Harsh, winter weather also adds a huge amount of stress right after the mating season has ended. I’ve found that some bucks will make tremendous shifts to new areas during the wintertime as they leave their rutting grounds. When a buck’s testosterone levels are nearly depleted, he will focus on finding areas with good food and winter cover.
Some bucks will stay in a relatively smaller area, around 2 square miles, while others make huge shifts to completely new areas more than 5 miles away from their summer or rutting grounds. Through trail cameras and shed hunting, I’ve collected data on several bucks over the years regarding their winter shift from the fall months. One buck in particular I followed for years was one I named Goliath.
A massive, old buck that shifted over 7 miles from his summer/fall grounds to wintering turf. I was fortunate to collect his shed antlers multiple times and every year he would spend the winter months in the same area. Nonetheless, Goliath would also spend the summer and fall months in a certain area as well, but I had never encountered him in his winter area.
Goliath’s wintering range had the habitat a buck would need to survive from December through March. There was plenty of thermal cover, several south sloping ridges and plenty of oaks available that often produced leftover acorns. It was the perfect world for a buck to get through the wintertime.
Mother Nature has a way of telling deer what they need to do and where they need to go to survive almost any situation. Nevertheless, once a buck survives a year or two, he has become educated as to how he can keep surviving as the years go on. He will know the woods and the different types of habitats that he needs to survive throughout the different seasons.
I’ve also found that does are completely different than bucks when it comes to shifting to new areas. Does rarely make large shifts. Their home ranges are much smaller but they do well with making the best of the areas they live in.
However, I have learned that mature bucks also know where the best food and cover is. Sometimes many miles away. They will move to new territory if there’s better habitat available.
They have great internal senses telling them that the grass is greener somewhere else. The winter shift almost always happens during December. What some hunters are failing to understand is that a lot of the areas they hunt bucks during gun season are not going to produce from fall scouting.
Where you found bucks in October and November might not be where they are in December, due to the winter shift. Some bucks will also shift to wintering areas once they sense the pressure of gun hunters. It’s hard to keep tabs on an old, whitetail buck.
Especially those that make a major shift from fall to winter..
