Ran across a fascinating whitetail study conducted in Oklahoma. Researchers fitted bucks with GPS collars and monitored their movements using a technique called “fractal dimension,” which describes the complexity (crisscross paths) and linearity (more straight lines) of the travels used by deer at various times of the season. The scientists found that in early fall (and again later in the post-rut), bucks stick to relatively small core areas and have complex, localized mazes of movement, which are the result of many short-distance trips during which the deer frequently circle, backtrack and change directions as they move from feed to bed (above left). But come the seeking days of the rut--beginning in late October and running through mid-November--many of those same bucks show less [...]

On opening day of the 2014 Kansas gun season Chuck Rorie saw a nice rack. “I didn’t think much about it; it just looked like a nice buck when I was watching it and I shot it,” Rorie told the Wichita Eagle. “But when I was skinning it I realized something didn’t look right,” said Chuck. “It didn’t have the right private parts.” How rare is an antlered doe like the one Chuck shot last season? Research on the topic is thin, but some biologists have said only 1 in 6,000 does will have antlers. And Dr. Grant Woods, one of the top whitetail scientists in the world, says that number could be as high as 1 in 10,000. Keith [...]

According to a fascinating and ongoing whitetail project conducted by researchers at Penn State, discretion and secrecy are top priorities to a doe about to give birth in May or June. Does split up and avoid contact with other does of their social group. A young doe that will give birth for the first time will seek out a secluded fawning site outside of her core area. An older doe will usually return to the same fawning spot each year to give birth. Most yearling does generally give birth to a single fawn. Twins are common among adult does. The researchers point out that in Pennsylvania where this project is happening, 80% of pregnant yearling does have single fawns; 74% of does 3 years [...]