Are deer born nocturnal?

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SHoff10
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Are deer born nocturnal?

Unread postby SHoff10 » Fri Dec 21, 2012 1:21 am

Where my house is in the city is right next to Dow Chemical's Corporate Headquarters. This is smack dab in the middle of the city. Dow owns a lot of land and there is a lot of woods around all of the corporate buildings. Well there is always a ton of deer that live in these woods with no chance of legally being hunted. Anyways, I drive by here all of the time through all times of the day and I would say about 99% of the time that I see deer it is within 30 minutes of first or last light, if not completely dark out. These deer have ZERO hunting pressure on them. I will say that there are people all around them all of the time, but I would think that they would get used to all of the people. These people consist of thousands of employees daily or locals out for a stroll.

So my question is....is it instinctual for deer to be nocturnal from day 1? Without any predator (including human) threats? There are some bruiser bucks (140+) that live in these woods but they are never seen during daylight except during the rut. So what makes these mature bucks so nocturnal??

Its a very interesting observation about how the whitetail deer is very good at surviving.


“If some animals are good at hunting and others are suitable for hunting, then the Gods must clearly smile on hunting.” –Aristotle
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PLB
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Re: Are deer born nocturnal?

Unread postby PLB » Fri Dec 21, 2012 1:33 am

Yes, deer are crespicular meaning they are most active at dawn and dusk....

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Re: Are deer born nocturnal?

Unread postby dreaming bucks » Fri Dec 21, 2012 2:01 am

Please read this article, is says alot on how it is natural for big bucks going noctournal.... a little long, but well worth it, the study they did is very informative...

http://www.northamericanwhitetail.com/2 ... ll_102605/
Bowhunting Brian
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Re: Are deer born nocturnal?

Unread postby Bowhunting Brian » Fri Dec 21, 2012 2:56 am

pressure makes deer go completely nocturanal. I would think if man did not exist and everything else was the same, deer would be out earlier all the time.
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Re: Are deer born nocturnal?

Unread postby dan » Fri Dec 21, 2012 10:08 am

pressure makes deer go completely nocturanal.

I hunt some pretty heavy pressure areas and I have never seen a complelty nocturnal buck.
However, to answer the O.P. question, deer are night animals. And the older a buck gets, the less it moves in daylight. On cushy managed lands they might move a little earlier, but even in those cases you usually don't see the oldest bucks come out to openings outside of the rut in daylight unless its on the edge of darkness.
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Re: Are deer born nocturnal?

Unread postby Bowhunting Brian » Fri Dec 21, 2012 6:02 pm

sorry, I wrote that wrong. I didn't mean to say the deer go nocturnal only, but only meant it is pressure that makes the deer go noctural.
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Re: Are deer born nocturnal?

Unread postby whitetailassasin » Sun Dec 23, 2012 9:41 am

I've noticed deer have a lot of different personalities, but also carry similar instincts. Let me give an example. Some dogs are naturally curious, some are very loving, some are very wary, some are lazy, etc. I believe deer are the same way to some extent. And yes hey are born with certain characteristics that affect movement etc.

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Re: Are deer born nocturnal?

Unread postby Buck snort » Sat Aug 06, 2016 2:12 am

bump....
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Stanley
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Re: Are deer born nocturnal?

Unread postby Stanley » Sat Aug 06, 2016 2:57 am

Interesting read.
You can fool some of the bucks, all of the time, and fool all of the bucks, some of the time, however you certainly can't fool all of the bucks, all of the time.
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Hawthorne
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Re: Are deer born nocturnal?

Unread postby Hawthorne » Sat Aug 06, 2016 3:06 am

A deers most secure cover is the cover of darkness. What really turned me on to the beast was when I heard Dan speak about how a buck won't move past how far they can see ,hear ,and smell from their bed in daylight. Their safe zone. You have to be set up right on the edge of it to have a crack in heavily pressured areas. I think it's a conditioned behavior when they make it to 2.5 or 3.5 in my area. So a mature buck is 95% nocturnal.

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Re: Are deer born nocturnal?

Unread postby DaveT1963 » Sat Aug 06, 2016 3:26 am

I'm with Dan I've never seen a buck 100% nocturnal. Telemtry studies show that the most movement is at dawn and dusk and they seldom bed for more e 3-4 hours without some movement. I think what people confuse as nocturnal us that she bucks under pressure stay in their bedding areas during daylight..... but they still browse, Chew cud, drink, poop, etc., throughout the day and night

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