Limping deer

[BSK]

Prior to CWD and when we were practicing QDM and trophy management, Ames had a lot of older bucks. These 4 and 5 year old bucks with smaller or average racks would often get busted up in December. It was unusual for a buck with a clean rack to come in and often a shooter buck would become a non shooter due to some big points being broken off as evidenced by cameras. Our so called hit list would start shrinking fast with some being killed and others broken off. If you were after a certain buck, you had better kill him in November or the first week of December. I'm assuming all this fighting resulted from lack of available does to breed.

I really believe the primary culprit is buck density rather than sex ratio. On my place, back when our big neighbor was slaughtering the doe population, which produced a very low deer density on our place with a sex ratio heavily favoring bucks (at times, 2 or more bucks per doe), but a low total density, we did not see these broken racks. Now that our density has jumped way up, but our sex ratio moderated (around 1.4 to 1.6 does per buck) we are seeing tons of broken racks. I think the culprit is the doubling of the older buck population.

 

[Smo]

A lot more people are letting bucks walk these days…
I know I don't hate em' like I once did.

 

[backyardtndeer]

I think the culprit is the doubling of the older buck population.

Older age class bucks definitely do more damage, even 3.5 year olds are capable of inflicting serious if not fatal damage. When you have higher numbers/densities of older age class bucks in any given area, would only stand to reason that there would be more injuries and broken antlers.

 

[BSK]

Older age class bucks definitely do more damage, even 3.5 year olds are capable of inflicting serious if not fatal damage. When you have higher numbers/densities of older age class bucks in any given area, would only stand to reason that there would be more injuries and broken antlers.

And we've gone from having five to seven 3 1/2+ year-olds to 12-13, which is a lot for one small area.

 

[gtk]

Here is the deer I have been watching. I went back thru my security video and tried to find him before and afterwards

Before injury


1st time noticing the limp


Few weeks later

 

[jaybird62]

I've been a full-time, year-round deer observer on my place in Marshall County since 2015 and the injury-related behavior really picked up after 2018. Lower leg injuries have really picked up since 2019. From a single observation point I have counted 17 different bucks this season, which is about typical over the past seven years. For the most part, yearling bucks get a pass on the square mile surrounding me over the last decade.

I'm seeing leg injuries, typically from the knee down, in all age classes. But, it is the most prevalent in 3-year-olds and older. No sign of EHD-related deformities in more than 30 deer I've been hands on with here since 2013. Early, when bucks are still in bachelor groups I'm not seeing leg injuries. By the third week of October when they start seeking is when the leg injuries start to appear. A couple of weeks later all of the sparring activity in older age class (over 2 1/2) ceases and they're either trying to kill each other or the weaker in full retreat. Access to farms with muddy cattle feed stations (when we're not in a drought) is year-round, but I don't see limping deer until the rut kicks in.

Coyote breeding pairs have been seen chasing limping deer multiple times over the past two seasons, so I believe that the predator population has learned to key in on these injured deer just like they have learned to patrol doe/fawn bedding areas in June/July. Over the past two years I've had two yearling bucks observed limping after hunting season get killed by coyotes 100 yards off my front porch in late January. What's most alarming to me is the number of deadheads from post-yearling bucks that I find after hunting season that I know didn't get killed while the hunting season was open. I've got a fair handle on what gets killed by hunters on about 500 acres around me and it appears that (from the number of deadheads picked up) that predators are finishing off more mature bucks than the difference brought about by a 2-buck limit compared to a 3-buck or 4-buck season limit.