Editor’s Note: Wildlife biologists, land managers and knowledgeable deer hunters all agree that the more we learn about deer, the more we know that there’s a lot more to be learned. No one has all the answers. However, there are some standards that are fairly dependable and are universally accepted and this is the information that I’ve included in my “Deer Hunter’s/Manager’s Pocket Reference.” I wanted a booklet I could keep in my daypack in a Ziploc bag and refer to when I was in hunting camps or out in the field and had a question about deer and deer hunting. So, we created the Deer Hunter’s IQ Test that has appeared in newspapers and magazines across the country. Read below to learn how well you and your hunting buddies did.
* Many outdoorsmen are having problems with deer, and like me, I’m sure you’ve heard your friends say, “You boys aren’t going to believe this. We live in a subdivision that’s covered-up in deer. My wife’s petunias, pansies, tulips and other plants are just getting eaten-up by deer. She’s asked me what she can plant that the deer won’t eat. Now I know at the hunting club we’re trying to figure-out what plants the deer will eat. But in my neighborhood, everybody is trying to learn what ornamental plants deer won’t eat.”
What plants won’t deer eat?
Answer: You may be surprised, but there’s a long list of different types of plants that are deer-resistant in my “Deer Hunter’s/Manager’s Pocket Reference,” including annuals, biennials, bulbs, ferns, groundcovers, ornamental grasses, perennials, shrubs and trees that you can plant in your yard that the deer are not supposed to want to eat. But always remember, that deer are often much like children. Although children are supposed to look both ways before the cross the street, sometimes they don’t. Here are a few of the more-popular plants in each category, but you can get a complete list in my deer reference guide.
Deer Resistant Plants:
Annuals – dusty miller, poppy, snapdragon
Biennials – common foxglove
Bulbs – bluebell, daffodil, ornamental onion
Ferns – holly fern, cinnamon fern
Groundcovers – bishop’s weed, lily of the valley
Ornamental Grasses – blue fescue, purple moor grass, Indian grass
Perennials – wild ginger, cactus, iris, lavender
Shrubs – bayberry, fragrant sumac
Trees – mimosa, pawpaw
* “That big 12-point buck I saw last season was killed 20-miles away on another hunting club I heard at the gas station when I was filling-up to come to the club,” one hunter said. Before the words were fully out of his mouth, another hunter jumped-in and announced, “That can’t be true, because a deer’s home range is only 1 mile.” Which man is right? How big is a white-tailed deer’s home range, how far do they travel during the rut, and can that buck that the first hunter has seen traveled 20 miles before another hunter has harvested him? What do you think?
Answer: A generally-accepted fact is that a deer’s home range is 1-square mile. However, that square mile may not be square. You see, deer don’t understand square. They go where they go and do what they do, but generally speaking, they do live within a 1-square-mile area, more or less. Now, when the rut arrives, a buck may travel as far as 5 miles from his home range, and there are rare instances where bucks may travel even further. Some radio telemetry studies show that certain individual deer may travel great distances due to hunting pressure, a low doe population or they’re being pursued by predators. While I don’t think we can say for sure that the 12-point buck the first hunter saw wasn’t the same buck that was taken by the hunter 20-miles away, more than likely there was more than one 12-point buck living within a 20-mile area. Several of those 12 pointers may have similar antler configurations.
My guess is that the hunter saw a 12-point-buck, and when he heard another hunter had killed a 12-point buck 20-miles away, the first hunter assumed that the buck that was harvested was the same buck he’d seen. And, he could have been right. However, the odds are against that buck traveling 20 miles. Normally, an older-age-class buck that has lived long enough to have a 12-point rack has found sanctuary on his home range and stays in those sanctuaries during daylight hours, except during the rut. Even then, most older-age-class bucks, especially in areas with a great deal of hunting pressure, will travel only at night.
