How can we tell if a deer has been in an area if we don’t actually see the animal? Can deer let other animals know what they are up to?
White-tailed deer leave a variety of signs that give social cues about their daily lives. Humans have tapped into this nonverbal communication. What can we learn from the signs deer leave behind?
Scrapes
Throughout the year, scrapes are made by both male and female deer, referred to as bucks and does. Most often, it is the buck creating the scrape, and it is most often during mating season.
The process of making a scrape involves a few parts of the animals' body. First, the deer encounters a low-hanging branch. They will rub their preorbital (near their eye) and forehead glands on the branch. These glands leave behind a scent unique to that deer. Occasionally, they will bite or chew the branch, leaving yet another scent signal behind for other animals to decipher.
Then the scraping begins. The buck will use his hoof to scrape away fallen leaves and plants directly below the low-hanging branch. Continuing to scrape away at the ground, the deer will begin to dig a shallow indentation in the soil.
Words to know
Cascade: To pour downward rapidly.
Cue: Something that serves as a signal.
Hunker: Squat or crouch down low.
Reckless: Without thinking or caring about the consequences of an action.
The scent of the soil alone can attract other deer, but the scraping buck does not stop there. Occasionally a male deer will go above and beyond to leave his scent behind. An overachieving mature buck often urinates in the shallow scrape it created in the soil. He then has two options. Will he choose normal urination or "rub-urination"?
Deer have two sets of glands on their hind legs. To carry out "rub-urination," a deer will rub these tarsal glands between their knees together while releasing their bladder. Some urine will be collected on the tarsal glands, while the rest will cascade onto the scraped soil. The urine on the scraped soil allows the buck to advertise through a unique-to-him scent that the spot is his. The urine collected on the tarsal glands allows the buck to proudly carry his scent around with him. The darker the tarsal glands are stained, the older and more mature the buck tends to be.
Rubs
A male white-tailed deer will rub his antlers on trees for different reasons during different seasons.
During the antler-growing season, these bones (Yes, antlers are made of bone!) protruding from the buck’s head are covered in skin, which is covered with short hairs. This skin is called velvet. It contains blood vessels, nutrients and minerals that help the antlers grow. When the antlers are fully grown, the deer no longer needs the velvet, so he will rub this thin layer of skin off.
Have you ever picked at your skin? Maybe you had an itchy spot or a scab. You might have rubbed your fingernail on your skin to remove the part that was bothering you. Although deer have hooves made of the same material as our fingernails, they can't scrape the velvet from their antlers with their hooves. They use a nearby tree to rub off the velvet, revealing hard, shiny bone.
When they rub their antlers on trees, it not only removes the velvet from their antlers, but it also removes bark from the tree. This tree rub is a lasting visual sign to other deer that a buck has been in this neck of the woods — marking its territory.
This visual sign has a scent clue too. Between the antlers, the forehead gland produces a scent used for communication. This scent leaves behind specific identifying information about themselves. The bigger and more dominant the buck, the more active and stinky the gland.
You have probably been stressed out or annoyed at some point. Squeezing a stress ball might help calm your nerves or help you focus. Deer can become stressed during certain times of the year, but instead of squeezing something, they press and rub their antlers against a small tree.
Smaller trees have a springy reaction to being pushed, and that pressure on their antlers helps a deer get some frustration out, almost like they are roughhousing with a friend. Deer also will show off to other deer by rubbing their antlers on a large tree, almost like they are saying, "Look how strong I am!"
The rut
The rut is the word to describe deers' breeding season. There are a few different stages to the rut. During each stage, bucks change their behaviors. Most often when you see a herd of deer, it will be adult females and adolescents. The bucks generally hide out until the pre-rut stage.
Let’s take a closer look at the stages of the rut:
During the pre-rut stage, the deer are not yet mating. But the bucks and does are beginning to make contact. The bucks will begin making scrapes and rubs to establish their territory and make themselves known within the forest.
Then comes the seeking stage. During this time of year, bigger bucks begin to roam out of the woods. While on the prowl for a doe to mate with, a buck will often ignore his own personal safety. Bucks can be found fighting with other bucks, running recklessly through open fields and even crossing the road without looking both ways first.
The chase is on! During the chasing stage of the rut, bucks become locked in on the females and become aggressive to other bucks and the does they are after. Throwing caution to the wind, the buck has only one thing on his mind during this peak-rut stage: finding a female to mate with.
Post-rut, bucks become less active, less aggressive and more cautious. They begin retreating to their hiding spots deep in the woods and go back to normal behavior. When the weather is colder and less food is available, deer hunker down, focusing on survival behaviors like eating and bedding, moving around as little as possible to conserve energy.
Silent communication
In the woods this fall, keep an eye out for signs deer left behind. If you see a scrape, look up. Did the deer also chew on a low-hanging branch? Have you come across a rub? Are there any other rubbed trees nearby? Does the rub look fresh? Maybe there are pieces of bark at the base of the tree. Perhaps it is a rub from a previous year.
Take the time to look around to see what the deer signs reveal. What can the deer silently tell you?
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