Understanding Daily Deer Movement

It is thought that deer rarely sleep longer than two hours before standing up to at least stretch. During the winter deer may sleep longer than that. During the rut bucks may bed very little.

While I was watching the hunters during the first day of the gun season one year I noticed three does, each with a fawn, feeding in the cornfields within a half-mile of my truck. Because these deer were not harassed by hunters, they continued to feed until about 8:30. Even with several gun-shots around them they continued to feed, and appeared not to be alarmed by the gun shots in the nearby woods, or the fact the hunting season was in progress. Shortly after 8:30 the does and fawns moved north and crossed a county road in open country. Then they went north until they got close to a group of trees planted along the neighbor’s driveway as a windbreak/snow fence. They followed the trees east and crossed a highway, and eventually moved back into the wooded area where they bedded. I suspect the deer were unaware of the hunters stationed in those woods, unless they came across their scent, and therefore they may have continued to move and feed as they normally would. They probably didn’t stop moving and feeding until they got back to their bedding areas, which may have taken an hour or more.

Movements by deer such as these, which were unaware of the hunters, explains why hunters often see deer moving in wooded areas late in the morning even during the hunting season. Hunters who know that this movement may occur can take advantage of it by staying in the woods most of the day. They may even see a buck following a doe late in the morning during the rut, especially if the does have been feeding in fields away from their bedding areas.

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