Researchers at the University of Georgia put GPS collars on 13 does and monitored them during a period of extremely heavy hunting pressure with deer dogs. Every doe hung out and hid in her core area until the dogs got too close and the heat too intense. The does then ran a mile or so out of their familiar area and found thickets where they could shelter in place. Deer are crepuscular, wired to move at dawn and dusk every day. Once the sun started setting and the dogs and pressure ceased for the day, every doe got up and made its way back to its core area. Every doe was back home within 12 hours. What it means to [...]

Jeff sent me this picture via Twitter of 3 more bucks dead from EHD in eastern Kentucky. This update out of Pikeville reports a “significant outbreak,” and that authorities are responding to incidents at the rate of “1 dead deer a day and sometimes up to 3 dead deer a day.” What is especially troubling about this occurrence of EHD is that it started so early, in late July, and it might not end till October, or whenever the first hard frost kills the midges that bite the deer and transmit the disease. I have not heard any other reports of EHD across the country. Let’s hope it stays that way, but let me know if you hear of an [...]

On Monday August 21 a total solar eclipse will arc across the United States for the first time in 99 years, providing a rare sight for tens of millions of people from Oregon to South Carolina. We humans are prepared for this event and looking forward to it. But what will the deer and other animals do when the moon blocks the sun and darkness descends and the temperature drops in the middle of just another day in their lives? Truth is, nobody, even the scientists who live for a 100-year event like this, really knows. While there is scant scientific info from eclipses in past years and decades, there are a lot of anecdotal stories—monkeys flipping out in the [...]