wolf country bedding

[megwan]

Just wondering if any of you have noticed if bucks in wolf country prefer any different setup for bedding as opposed to bucks that don't have that threat. Headgear must have some insight here?

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[cedarsavage]

This is my first year back in wolf country so I'm learning as I go. What I've read and observed is that the they still like marsh bedding, someone told me that the wolves have a difficult time traveling through the swamps. I can say that all the locations I picked out from google earth had sign in them. The bedding definitely is not as consistent here as it is in swamp/marsh country. My hypothesis is that because they have so many options they just don't bed as consistently. Something else I've observed is that almost every deer I encounter travels wind to back instead of nose to wind. I've read that this is so they can smell what's behind them. Last night I hunted a bedding area with a south east wind and a lake to the south, and sat to the north. The whole time I kept thinking "you're hunting the wrong wind, you should be hear on north wind" right at dark I heard sloshing and rubbing and a deer left from se to w, wind to back. Something else I've noticed is they tend to move earlier in the evening/later in the morning. I've read that's because the wolves are more active at night. That's the first time I've had movement right at dark this season. I've got a couple cameras that have sitting on transitions all season so I'm hoping to correlate bedding and wind/time of year. Big woods and wolves definitely create a huge that I can see I'm gonna be working on for quite awhile.

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[headgear]

Yep pretty much the same as anywhere else, they like the wet stuff when they can find it. Using wind, thermals, eyes and ears to keep them safe. They seem to like a mess of blow downs once in a while too, anything to slow us predators down. Like mentioned above wolves have bigger feet and get sucked into the mud like the rest of us, they still travel the swamps on a regular basis but you won't find them in really wet stuff and the deer can outrun them really easy in any kind of bog or swamp.

The bigger difference I see is in the younger deer, the fawns learn pretty quickly in wolf country and they will stare you down and sometimes bust you like an old doe. Lots of wolf pressure to keep them on their toes.

[cedarsavage]

Yep pretty much the same as anywhere else, they like the wet stuff when they can find it. Using wind, thermals, eyes and ears to keep them safe. They seem to like a mess of blow downs once in a while too, anything to slow us predators down. Like mentioned above wolves have bigger feet and get sucked into the mud like the rest of us, they still travel the swamps on a regular basis but you won't find them in really wet stuff and the deer can outrun them really easy in any kind of bog or swamp.

The bigger difference I see is in the younger deer, the fawns learn pretty quickly in wolf country and they will stare you down and sometimes bust you like an old doe. Lots of wolf pressure to keep them on their toes.

Are your deer real spooky too? what are your observations with wind direction, is it wind to back as well?

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[KLEMZ]

I hunt two terrains, (wolf country.... Bayfield County Wisconsin...near lake Superior), and (non wolf country.... SE wisconsin marsh/swamp/farmland terrain)......all public. I live in SE Wisconsin so that is where the majority of my scouting happens. Southern Wisconsin is where I learned what a mature buck bedding area looks like. Virtually every big buck bedding area I have found in southern Wisconsin is a unique terrain point or hump or elevation dry spot that offers advantages to a single animal using all his senses to stay alive.

What I have found in the wolf country of northern Wisconsin is that about half of the mature buck bedding areas are STILL the unique terrain points or humps where a single animal can use his senses to stay safe. But, I also have noticed that fully mature, wolf country bucks, will also SHARE a bedding area with multiple other deer including other bucks and doe families. These areas tend to be a bit bigger, say 1 acre+, and they seem to be buried in a whole area of thick nasty vegetation, but the bedding area itself is a bit more open...like an oasis in the thick jungle. The bigger bucks seem to have favorite corners of the bedding area that they use most. I suspect, besides meeting all their criteria for personal safety, they are also using the other deer as sentinels to predator danger (mainly wolves), another layer of security (if they can tolerate having other deer around).

However, the very biggest of the bucks in wolf country seem to be the ones that trust their senses alone. This is based mainly on sign interpretation on my part.

[headgear]

Are your deer real spooky too? what are your observations with wind direction, is it wind to back as well?

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They are certainly more high strung in thick wolf country, I do hunt some central mn areas where the wolf population is much lower and you can see a noticeable difference. With the wind I see them moving with all kinds of winds, doesn't seem to make any difference.

[olivertractor]

I don't think their bedding changes. I've seen deer (not necessarily mature bucks) hold tight with 1 or 2 wolves around than come outta bed like nothings wrong. This has been consistent thru high deer numbers which equals high wolf relocation and low deer numbers again relocation.

Imo I think deer in general and mature bucks thru the major dip in population are living closer to homes/private where there are more numbers of deer to increase percentages of protection against predation. I just don't see as many mature bucks in never never land like I used to, but maybe it's population sign too, there's few factors that is unknown.

Deer including mature deer in Ontario which in my opinion have bigger pack numbers and less human pressure, aren't at all fidgety as if expect them to be. Bedding tendencies are still common from what I can tell. They'll jump from a bed and stop and look back often, but maybe that's part of their defense, maybe them jumping outta bed for short distance to reasess situation, instead of leaving their place they felt safe as it was?

As far as using wind I've seen em mostly use at least a nostril into wind, but few times have seen them moving with wind to back only with a good visual ahead of them.

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[headgear]

Something else to consider is no one probably has a great ideas of how much wolves affect bedding and movement, you can pick up certain things but in wolf country it's not uncommon to go a decade without seeing a single wolf, they are there but you just don't see them all that often. It's not so easy to pick up on patterns and understand what is happening because you don't get to see wolf and deer interaction all that much. We can guess at it based on experience but getting that experience is not an easy task so kind of take everything with a grain of salt.

[olivertractor]

Something else to consider is no one probably has a great ideas of how much wolves affect bedding and movement, you can pick up certain things but in wolf country it's not uncommon to go a decade without seeing a single wolf, they are there but you just don't see them all that often. It's not so easy to pick up on patterns and understand what is happening because you don't get to see wolf and deer interaction all that much. We can guess at it based on experience but getting that experience is not an easy task so kind of take everything with a grain of salt.

Exactly

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[ihookem]

I dont think their bedding changes for mature bucks. They seem to sit in well established spots like down here. When I see a buck bed in wolf country ( Price & Sawyer co.) I look around and say, Yah, I can see why he would sit here on a south , or west wind ETC. I know very few buck beds there. I can tell you the deer in wolf country are the most skittish deer I ever hunted. Like other poster said, A fawn will stare you down and stomp his feet and do a good job busting you . I dont see how anyone can shoot a big old deer in that country. I have tried with a bow to no avail. The hardest deer in the world is an old wolf country deer. Down here In S.E . Wis. have yet to get busted by a younger deer . Older bucks, yes. , even coughed last weeks and the 2 deer looked at each other and went back to eating. Another thing about wolf country deer, I almost never see them until the sun is up for about 2 hours. During gun season , I see them no earlier than 8 Am. ( 1 1/2 hrs after opening and is surprisingly consistent around 9-10AM on one stand. Afternoon , I see them just before dark.