What does the word mean as it relates to the deer woods? I would assume a "transition" is one habitat type changing to another, such as a fence row separating corn field from beans, or the line between woods and field. But I often hear "transition" or "transition zone" or "transition area" used like it means some kind of zone where deer step into so they can transition from one place to another as if it's a bus station or they're teleporting or something. Why not just call it a travel corridor or trail? And it seems to almost be exclusive to video, not written word. Every habitat improvement and deer hunting video on Youtube throws that word around but so many of them use it in different ways that I'm pretty sure they don't understand it, either. It's just a catchy word to say. Never in my life until recent years did I hear that word come up in a deer hunting conversation. The deer aren't gender confused. They're not transitioning. They're not redirecting electrical current in my radio. So what the heck does it mean?
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Transition Question/Rant
- Thread starter Ski
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@fulldraw
Well-Known Member
Deer are edge species, meaning they spend time moving from different cover types or food sources. This is where transitioning comes from. Yes, it's used way too much but that's because habitat cover changes so frequently.
Perhaps you try reading too deep?
WTNBowHunter
Well-Known Member
TK & Mike never used the word transition either and they are the standard for all hunting practices (just joking but those were some funny videos). Anyway back to the topic, my guess is they are referring to anything between bedding and food which encompasses a whole lot of area. I hear phrases like that used and it's funny sometimes. Like 'saddle' for instance…if you are hunting a flat row crop farm in the delta, there are no saddles. My favorite shows to watch are still the Primos Truth series' by far. Feeling like I'm down a rabbit hole now so this is the end of my post
I've seen transition zone used to describe the high grass between the thick pines and the food plot.....we've started letting the grass grow some between the food plots and the "heavy cover" instead of bush hogging right to the edge of the thick stuff.
does it help? I don't know but it looks as if it would....
does it help? I don't know but it looks as if it would....
That's exactly the point I was getting at. My question of what it means was more rhetorical than literal because it seems to mean something different every time I hear it used. If it's not clearly defined bedding or food, it falls under transition.
Yeah that's the definition I initially understood. A transition is a separation between two habitat or terrain features, not 1000yd span of forest between a bed and a food plot.
BSK
Well-Known Member
I'm a habitat manager, yet I've never heard the term used. I suspect they are talking about the how one major habitat changes to another, often producing a unique habitat type where the two major units adjoin.
Watch some YouTube. You'll hear the term so much it could be used as a drinking game! I don't watch much TV and don't do social media other than this. So when I have a few minutes in mornings or evenings I'll watch YouTube, and habitat or bow hunting videos are what I watch.
I agree with your definition. That's how I see it as well.
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I don't watch hunting shows much, although I do watch them. I don't remember them using that word but I've said ( transition area) for 15 years or more. I guess I picked it up along the way. I define it as the change in habitat as in thicket to hardwoods or wherever theirs change in the woods. I also use the terms, saddle, ledges, flats, thickets, bottlenecks, ravines, corridors, rises, hollows, ridges, and personally my favorite that Bucky area. Lol. I guess I'd drive you fellers crazy.
Haha no sir, wouldn't drive me crazy at all. I understand every term you listed, even "Bucky". Your definition of "transition" aligns with my own and everybody else who's posted, which is the way it's supposed to work. The purpose of a language after all is to assign words that are universally understood. I was being goofy with my initial post. Bad attempt at humor I guess.
I havo no idea about transition meaning and I hear it all the time as well. One that makes my skin crawl is without futher "Ado". Every YouTuber wants to say "without further Ado" - makes me fee like I am listening to a college presentation or I get to ride the Space shuttle to the moon.
I hear it all the time but have never gave it a second thought lol. "I shot the deer when it came out from the woods to the field" is good enough for me. I have also never harvested a deer. I kill them.
BSK
Well-Known Member
Ummm, no thank you! I watched one or two "expert management advice" videos a couple of years ago and was so appalled by the inaccurate information I had to stop watching.
And by the way, in research terminology, these "transitions" are called ecotones. The unique, often thin habitat type existing where one major habitat type adjoins another. The classic example would be narrow strip of brush, briers and tall grasses that develop where big hardwoods meet an open field or pasture.
JCDEERMAN
Well-Known Member
I think that was the name of the Ghostbusters carOnly a matter of time before I here "ecotones" on YT now
BSK
Well-Known Member
Good Lord I hope not!Only a matter of time before I here "ecotones" on YT now
BSK
Well-Known Member
Only thing I watch on YouTube is old music videos, you know the ones on the original MTV from the 80s.
