This really shouldn't be as perplexing as it is, with all due respect to Dr. Kroll... if he stated the bucks have a slight increase in testosterone right before antler drop I have no doubt that they do.
However, there is a simpler explanation for all these scrapes being hit right now and we see it every year. For those Beasts that are in snowmelt areas or where frozen ground has begun to thaw due to warmer temperatures it is time that we use a different sense other than our vision. It will be most noticeable in areas where there were good sized, mulitple primary scrapes during the last rut... it is the same with lesser scrape areas although our weak noses tell us little.
All of my friends are finding fresh scrapes right now and it is because the ground is thawing and the old scrapes stink to high heaven, like a barnyard. This stimulus is very strong to all deer and they scrape away. The ammonia odor in big scrapes is very strong as the urine continues to break down, as does the feces and glandular secretions around these scrape areas. I have scrapes that have just been hit and opened again and the soil stinks so bad like bacterial breakdown and ammonia that it would make some of us gag.
It is so strong that deer walking through it have so much scent on their hooves that other deer may scrape in various areas where the stinky deer walked... if you found a primary scrape area or a very large scrape or two last fall, go revisit them and inhale the stench... you will get it.
