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MSU Deer Lab Buck summer vs fall range

lafn96

lafn96

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From their FB post. If you're not following them or listening to their podcast, you should if you're interested in this kind of stuff.

Bucks seen in bachelor groups on your hunting property during summer are often not seen come hunting season, so we've been working on an analysis to determine how adult buck activity centers shift from summer to fall. The average distance between activity centers for all bucks in our study is about 0.75 miles (1,300 yards). Given that 33% of our bucks have a mobile personality and use 2 separate, non-overlapping home ranges often several miles apart, this distance should not be too surprising.

Buck 20, shown on this map, was 3.5 years old when these GPS points were collected. The white lines represent his August movements and red lines represent his October movements in the same year. He has a mobile personality, so the separation between his activity centers is much greater (about 1.5 miles) than our average buck. Despite this distance, you can see he still frequently travels back and forth to his summer activity center throughout the month of October. What's the furthest you've noticed a buck's activity center shift from summer to fall?

1000001852.webp
 
I love these GPS studies. Something that stands out to me isn't how far he moves but rather how focused/confined his movements are the majority of the time. Although he takes some long walks his core fall range where he's at more than any other time easily fits into an 1/8 mile by 1/4 mile strip. That makes him very huntable.
 
lafn96, I am right there with you, all of their podcasts/youtube videos are loaded with good info!
Shot a 9pt w/ bow in 2021 that was, as a crow flies, ~1mi from the closest trail cam pic I had of him that year. that's not a really long way but farthest deer from where i felt like the summer/early fall range was solely based on trail cams. some of the deer in their studies definitely fit the bill of what dr. demarais refers to as "excursion deer". the craziest one to me was that one that spent the summer in AR and then swam the MS river into MS for the fall/winter...think they tabulated the linear distance at 12-13 mi?
 
WTNBowHunter said:
lafn96, I am right there with you, all of their podcasts/youtube videos are loaded with good info!
Shot a 9pt w/ bow in 2021 that was, as a crow flies, ~1mi from the closest trail cam pic I had of him that year. that's not a really long way but farthest deer from where i felt like the summer/early fall range was solely based on trail cams. some of the deer in their studies definitely fit the bill of what dr. demarais refers to as "excursion deer". the craziest one to me was that one that spent the summer in AR and then swam the MS river into MS for the fall/winter...think they tabulated the linear distance at 12-13 mi?
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I dont remember the distance but they said he did it multiple times per year
 
I think that study you posted is from the Big Black River in central MS. The one I was thinking of is from another study along the MS river but nonetheless some bucks travel a good ways
 
TNRifleman said:
Reminds me of one of my favorite stories from the PSU deer lab. The place where this buck went to die is just plain creepy. Also interesting to note how movement seems to be a little different in a mountainous setting vs. an agricultural setting.

Penn State Deer-Forest Study

www.deer.psu.edu www.deer.psu.edu
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Interesting read. Thanks for sharing!
 
Heath423 said:
MSU deer lab has some great studies and podcast. I try to listen to most of their stuff.
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If I remember correctly, Dr. Strickland mentioned in one podcast earlier this year, they are doing some research in South central or southwest TN. Interesting to learn about what their study is on and the findings of said study
 
Agree with others comments...MSU Deer Lab has some very informative and interesting information for those interested in deer and habitat management...good stuff.
 
TNRifleman said:
Reminds me of one of my favorite stories from the PSU deer lab. The place where this buck went to die is just plain creepy. Also interesting to note how movement seems to be a little different in a mountainous setting vs. an agricultural setting.

Penn State Deer-Forest Study

www.deer.psu.edu www.deer.psu.edu
Click to expand...
That was very interesting and weird that he went back. Could that be the area where he was born?
 
The white line really makes me think about a couple deer I've only gotten on camera once or twice in the summer and never seen them again.

Maybe they are still alive?

This also makes me wonder how abnormal a particular deer is that I see in my neighborhood. He's at least 7 years old, probably 8 and he is nearly always within 150 yds of my back door. He disappears for a few days each November but otherwise he's almost always around.
 
WTNBowHunter said:
I think that study you posted is from the Big Black River in central MS. The one I was thinking of is from another study along the MS river but nonetheless some bucks travel a good ways
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We're referring to the same one - that buck you mentioned crossed the Mississippi river several times.

Edit - found an article about it
www.outdoorlife.com

This Buck Swims Across the Mississippi River and Back Every Year During an 18-Mile Migration

Studies conducted by the Mississippi State University Deer Lab show that some Southern whitetails migrate more than hunters might expect.
www.outdoorlife.com www.outdoorlife.com
 
Pilchard said:
This also makes me wonder how abnormal a particular deer is that I see in my neighborhood. He's at least 7 years old, probably 8 and he is nearly always within 150 yds of my back door. He disappears for a few days each November but otherwise he's almost always araround.
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The studies about bucks traveling miles and miles are always fascinating but there is zero doubt that all bucks do not travel extreme distances. I say this with some degree of confidence because some bucks we get pics of all summer, fall and winter...and other bucks seem to disappear only to reappear weeks or months later...so its definitely different property to property or buck to buck....I'm currently waiting on a buck to hopefully show back up...we let him walk three times last November....hadnt got a pic of him yet...but last year our first pic of him was Sept 18th....so we'll see....fun to follow them and try to understand them...there are just so many variables to consider....and thats why when you ask a wildlife biologist a direct question many times the answer will start out with "well...it depends"....and the older I get the more I understand that response.
 
I've developed the philosophy that seeing a buck a lot of times in August means he's probably elsewhere in the fall.

Seeing a buck once in August probably means he's checking out or looking for his fall range. That's a target buck IMO
 
DoubleRidge said:
The studies about bucks traveling miles and miles are always fascinating but there is zero doubt that all bucks do not travel extreme distances. I say this with some degree of confidence because some bucks we get pics of all summer, fall and winter...and other bucks seem to disappear only to reappear weeks or months later...so its definitely different property to property or buck to buck....I'm currently waiting on a buck to hopefully show back up...we let him walk three times last November....hadnt got a pic of him yet...but last year our first pic of him was Sept 18th....so we'll see....fun to follow them and try to understand them...there are just so many variables to consider....and thats why when you ask a wildlife biologist a direct question many times the answer will start out with "well...it depends"....and the older I get the more I understand that response.
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That's right. It's totally individual to the buck. I get a fairly even mix of homebodies, roamers, and occasional visitors. Some bucks live in same area their entire lives and some have seasonal ranges. I've never seen a one size fits all situation where every buck predictably does the same thing. If they did it wouldn't be any fun hunting. We do our best to categorize bucks but really each one is completely unique.
 
lafn96 said:
From their FB post. If you're not following them or listening to their podcast, you should if you're interested in this kind of stuff.

Bucks seen in bachelor groups on your hunting property during summer are often not seen come hunting season, so we've been working on an analysis to determine how adult buck activity centers shift from summer to fall. The average distance between activity centers for all bucks in our study is about 0.75 miles (1,300 yards). Given that 33% of our bucks have a mobile personality and use 2 separate, non-overlapping home ranges often several miles apart, this distance should not be too surprising.

Buck 20, shown on this map, was 3.5 years old when these GPS points were collected. The white lines represent his August movements and red lines represent his October movements in the same year. He has a mobile personality, so the separation between his activity centers is much greater (about 1.5 miles) than our average buck. Despite this distance, you can see he still frequently travels back and forth to his summer activity center throughout the month of October. What's the furthest you've noticed a buck's activity center shift from summer to fall?

View attachment 243571
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they have very interesting data from their studies.
 
Ski said:
That's right. It's totally individual to the buck. I get a fairly even mix of homebodies, roamers, and occasional visitors. Some bucks live in same area their entire lives and some have seasonal ranges. I've never seen a one size fits all situation where every buck predictably does the same thing. If they did it wouldn't be any fun hunting. We do our best to categorize bucks but really each one is completely unique.
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Sort of fits the definition of "wild game" does it not?
 
I just love seeing GPS collar studies. It's one thing to have to guess how and where bucks are on the landscape day-to-day, hour-to-hour, but to know exactly is just amazing. When GPS collars were first being developed, they were crazy expensive. Depending upon the features (mortality sensor, neck-tip sensor, etc.) they could run upwards of $10-20K each. That meant that only universities could afford them. Now, you can get cheap air-tags that will track your cat or dog around the neighborhood.

When the first large-scale GPS studies started to be published, they were a great relief to me. When photo censusing smaller properties, I kept noticing patterns in when bucks would show up on camera regularly and when they would disappear. I began to believe bucks had "seasonal" ranges that did not match the pattern of what had been described in the literature previously. Previous studies indicated all deer had a home range they were very dedicated to, and other than bucks expanding their ranges during the rut, deer lived their whole lives on that one home range. Now we know differently, and that matched what I was seeing on trail-camera censuses. Some bucks have a summer range that is completely different - and often miles away - from their fall range. Some bucks even have a separate "peak breeding" range they live in for 5-6 weeks, and this may be in a completely different location than their normal fall range. But most of all, these studies showed every deer is an individual and follows unique patterns. In fact, so many deer follow unique patterns that it's hard to say what is "normal" or average. There is no "normal." Every deer is an individual and does something different.
 

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