The deers ability of sensing of the presence of the hunter is very strong. They could do so when the hunter is miles away from them even from the air movements. But that also sometimes fails for the deer. The deer are very grouping type of animal. They may escape in different directions but they will regroup again somewhere and the doe is always their leader. This knowledge could be of good use to the hunters. And this animal is very stubborn and travels in their chosen directions.
A deer's senses of sight, smell and hearing are its warning system and constitute the most important part of its protective equipment. If the hunter expects to approach a deer without detection, he must avoid this warning system. This is difficult and often impossible, but it is helpful to have an understanding of how deer use these identification senses.
Their sense of smell is very well developed. Any animal that can dig down through a foot and a half of snow and find a frozen apple, squash, turnip or cabbage must have a good nose. I have watched deer do this and they never dig an unproductive hole. I watched five feeding deer while a mink approached them.
There was a cross wind, but the deer detected the mink at a distance of over a hundred yards. The mink was in thick cover and I am sure that they detected its presence by scent alone. The ability of deer to catch the scent of a hunter depends on the wind direction and velocity, in relation to man and animal, and on the time that these relations have been maintained. A very light air movement will carry a man's scent away from a deer if he is down wind, and to it, of course, if he is up wind. Sometimes a strong wind will dissipate the scent so that a deer fails to detect it even if the hunter is up wind. When the atmospheric pressure is such that smoke stays close to the ground then scent remains close to the ground and at such times deer can detect odors for a long distance.
The fact that deer have a keen nose need not be too discouraging to the hunter, for deer do not run at the first hint of danger. The deer that live in settled country have become accustomed to the scent of humans and they will not resort to flight from them until they are sure that such flight is necessary. True wilderness deer, on the other hand, are so unaccustomed to man that their curiosity will often be stronger than their instinctive fear. The deer which live in a wilderness country that is hunted intensively are the deer that are most apt to rely on their sense of smell, and, since all men encountered are enemies, they are the deer that are most apt to flee from the scent of these men. A deer's hearing is exceptionally good. I have seen this demonstrated many times but perhaps one example will furnish a good idea of its actions when alarmed by a noise.
The fact that deer have a keen nose need not be too discouraging to the hunter, for deer do not run at the first hint of danger. Because the deer dont usually dont run at the first instance of senses of human odors unless the deer lives in the country wilderness. So this should not be discouraging for the hunters.
The hunter who is aware of these traits of the deer should turn them to his advantage whenever he has the opportunity. The deers senses of sight, smell and hearing are very sharp because thats how they protect themselves. This also helps them to feed themselves. |
