In a recent study, Understanding Buck Movement, scientists at the vaunted Mississippi State Deer Lab found that each day during hunting season, mature bucks use many different resting and bedding areas rather than one major sanctuary. The MSU researchers tracked GPS-collared adult bucks and found out that they visit and revisit different “focal areas” within a property with varying levels of regularity throughout hunting season. While the biologists could not determine exactly why the bucks frequented these areas, they believe that, based on slow and concentrated movement data emitted from the tracking collars, that the bucks were most likely bedding and resting in one spot before getting up and moving to another focal area. Nearly all the adult bucks in [...]

Scientists at the Mississippi State Deer Lab say velvet antlers grow rapidly, as much as ¾-inch a week for yearling bucks and 1 1/2 inches per week for adults during the peak growing season in June! Velvet antlers have a complex system of blood vessels which causes them to be hot to the touch. There is so much blood carrying protein and minerals to a buck’s antlers this time of year that even small antlers are easily detected by thermal imaging devices. Tiny hairs on the velvet stick out and make the antlers look thicker than they actually are. The hairs act as a radar system so a buck won’t bump into trees, fence posts, etc. and damage his soft antlers. Sebum, [...]