White-tailed deer’s rut is in full swing

As I was driving along a primitive road through the thick brush along the Snake River, I saw the wiggle of a white-tailed deer through the brush. I stopped and made a slow stalk through the weeds and the brush. The stiff north wind was blowing from the deer toward me, not only carrying my scent away from it but also muffling any sound that I made.

When I was about twenty yards from the tree where I saw the tail, a small buck exploded out of the tall grass and ran straight past the tree. I froze behind a small bush as a huge buck stood up, walked a few steps, stopped and tried to locate what had spooked the small buck. I worried that the sound of my camera might scare it, but he stood there for several minutes, often glancing below him. Finally, a doe stood up next to him, and she spotted me and took off. He paused for a second and followed her through the brush.

I jumped the big buck and the doe again and there were two small bucks hanging around them. As I went further through the thick brush, I saw another two-point buck hanging with two does and their fawns. The rut for the whitetails was in full swing.

In Idaho, the white-tailed rut usually begins in late October with the peak time from Nov. 10 through Thanksgiving. Bucks spend the summer, hidden in thick brush, eating and gaining weight to prepare for the breeding season when they will lose about 20 percent of their weight. In the meantime, does will raise their fawns, also usually hidden from view.

As the buck’s antlers change from velvet to horns, they are ready to start chasing the does, but the females are in charge of that activity. The doe’s hormones are controlled by photoperiod when the daylight becomes shorter and creates the correct concentrations of estrogen and progesterone to make them fertile. The exact time of estrus can also be slightly determined by heredity. This causes some does to become fertile in the “pre-rut” stage during late October.

Female white-tails only stay fertile for two or three days and their scent causes the bucks to become wild men. The bucks throw all caution to the wind, running through the thickets checking out each doe until they find the fertile one and then they may have to battle another buck for her. The pre-rut is the best time to see the bucks because they may travel miles in search of the fertile does.

Most does become fertile between Nov. 10 and Thanksgiving which will cause a buck to concentrate on an individual doe, copulating several times during the 48 to 72 hour period. This cuts down on the competition between the bucks and they become less visible as they hide with the female.

As this first cycle ends and most does have been bred, the mature bucks rest and eat a lot to gain the weight back that they have lost. Younger bucks will continue to check out females to see if they may become fertile again. The females that did not take will become fertile in mid-December along with another group of females, some of the fawns from the previous spring.

Young females, six to eight months old, can become fertile as long as their body has reached “critical mass.” This means that she has gained enough weight and condition to carry a fetus during the winter months. Several years ago I got pictures of two of these young females being bred at Camas National Wildlife Refuge.

Many of the white-tailed reproductive activities happen on private property where hunting is not allowed or limited, and I am thankful for landowners that have allowed me to watch and photograph many of these activities. Please respect private property and get permission to hunt or visit these properties.

I hope all of you had a wonderful Happy Thanksgiving and are busy shopping for Christmas. Be careful, large game animals will be crossing the roads as they migrate if we get snow. Pray for cold weather so we can get ice on area lakes to fish through!!!!