I remember this same discussion over bass many years ago. The question was this:
It used to be a sawed-off teaspoon would catch bass. What happened to those bass? Why won't they bite a sawed-off teaspoon any more?
In largemouth bass there is no room for culture. Big bass don't teach their young. The answer was that perhaps the original population of bass had a segment that were more easily fooled. They quickly ended up on the plate. Were bass getting smarter? Perhaps they were, but it was also likely that folks stopped sawing off teaspoons once better lures came on the market.
Are deer getting smarter? Did the dumb ones end up on the meat pole? One thing is for sure. In places where deer get hunted from stands, they start looking up. Another thing for sure: If you keep a stand up over many years, the deer begin to pattern the hunter. The key to this is witnesses. I think deer need to see other deer killed before they really make the connection. Killing one deer in front of others probably is the key to all this.
I have one stand in particular that has been testament to this. In the beginning, I had deer walking past as if I did not exist. Now, after five deer, daughters have seen mothers die. Mothers have seen sons die. They know.
Madge is a prime example. I think I clipped her mother back in 2004. She now approaches that stand warily and takes a position downwind and hides in a clump of cedars. When she winds me, she begins snorting and sticks around to stomp and snort for sometimes an hour. The other deer think she is a bit of an hysteric, and go about their business unafraid. I made matters worse last year by muffing a bow shot on Madge right at last light. I wonder what she'll be like when I encounter her this year.
Smart? Well, if they were smart, Madge would have figured out that coming around that stand was a bad idea. She doesn't grasp the full dynamic, but she's onto something. If Madge goes, I doubt another will quickly step up to sound the alarm in her way, but Madge definitely learned. I'm also sure any offspring of Madge will have a wariness of something around that stand. Whether they know to look up is another matter.
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2 comments:
From Boggy Creek Ranger over at 24hourcampfire.
Interesting, thanks all. Seems like most are seeing/experiencing the same thing I am. Maybe the deer ain't "smarter" but they surely do act different than they did years back.
Shaman, I had an old doe like your Madge. It was funny as the dickens. The stand I had on an oat patch was just a board nailed in the fork of a big red oak tree. After a couple of seasons that old slut would stick her head out of the bushes looking at that fork. If you were in it she would carry on just like you said yours does. She'd keep everything out of that patch. Frustrated the hell out of me and I decided to shoot the old thing. Well, kiss my foot, she knew it I guess because she wouldn't come out if I was in the stand. Just stand there and blow and stomp, her head stuck out of the bushes and she looking at me.
Got a bright idea. Took a limb about six feet below the stand fork in the same tree. Old slut came, looked at the empty fork and hopped right in. Smoked her with my flint lock and a more surprised looking deer you never did see. Just an instant of recognition but too late to do anything about it. I laughed like a loon.
That is hoot and a half! I've switched trees before, but I never thought of moving on the same tree. I'd have laughed like a loon too.
Funny, but have you noticed how hunting can turn some of the ghastliest scenarios and make them hilarious?
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