2 Questions

[Clevinger]

1) How often, in your experience, do buck beds face south? I live in Minnesota, and it seems like most of the beds I find face south. If there's a bed in a clearing, the bucks are on the north side of it, presumably maximizing sun. If there's a hump, the bucks are on the south side of it, again, maximizing sun exposure. Is this a consistent pattern, in your experience, or do I have sampling error.

2) Generally, bucks bed far from human exposure, correct? In your experience, do they ever bed someplace relatively close to people, assuming the people aren't directly walking into their immediate bedding area? There's a buck that I think more or less watches us come and go from where we park, but I'm not exactly sure where his bed is.

[dan]

1) How often, in your experience, do buck beds face south? I live in Minnesota, and it seems like most of the beds I find face south. If there's a bed in a clearing, the bucks are on the north side of it, presumably maximizing sun. If there's a hump, the bucks are on the south side of it, again, maximizing sun exposure. Is this a consistent pattern, in your experience, or do I have sampling error.

2) Generally, bucks bed far from human exposure, correct? In your experience, do they ever bed someplace relatively close to people, assuming the people aren't directly walking into their immediate bedding area? There's a buck that I think more or less watches us come and go from where we park, but I'm not exactly sure where his bed is.

#1 Bucks bedding positions have more to do with wind direction, and cover than sun or direction... In the cold of winter there is some truth in what your saying, but most of the time buck beds maximize personal safety by keeping wind and cover to there back, and vision in front of them

#2 Bucks do not tolerate repeated human presence in there bedding or safe zone, but they often have that safe zone right up against a trail, a back yard, a road, etc... In a lot of cases they position themselves to watch human access on a known human access trail.