Deer movement/patterns related to harsh winters

[NFA-ADK]

With 2 harsh winters, last winter was extreme, it is understandable that the deer harvest numbers are down.  Combine that with a large mast crop dropping of acorns and beechnuts can and will cause deer to conserve energy in anticipation of the same event happening this year.  (Harsh winter.)  Simply put they are moving less to conserve energy and trying to fatten up as much as possible thinking this winter will mirror the last ones.  Overthinking it maybe but if your survival depended on it I bet you would do the same if you where in their shoes and just made it through last winter.

Simply put after breeding season was over the deer movement dropped big time and storing fat for the winter and conserving energy became priority number one.  If you did not hunt before late November chances are you had a bad season.   Many other factors in the equation but I feel the deer sense another harsh winter and storing fat reserve and conserving energy for the worst of times takes priority for them to survive.  If the mast crop drop wasn't so large I believe we would have seen better movement.  Warm day temps did not help daytime movement either.

The real question is this.  Do deer that experience harsh winters expect that as the norm and prep for it accordingly?  For me the answer is apparently Yes. 

 

 

I would love to blame other hunters for taking to many deer, low participation, DEC, harsh winter kill, slob hunters, tree stand hunters, stalkers, mast crop and excessive food and even low hunter participation and lack of access to safe zones but simply put after the breeding season was over deer movement shut down during the day and the only thing that makes sense to me is the deer are prepping for another harsh winter and recovering from the rut.  If you had a good year it was probably because you hunted before the rut completed in late November. 

 

 

If you disagree please explain why so many hunters saw so little movement during late November/ opening day southern zone.   What is your explanation for the low movement/sightings and deer harvest that seems to persist.  The data I am hearing is pretty overwhelming.

 

 

If my theory is correct we should see the bow/early hunter season harvest the same as last year and the year before but gun and late season hunters would have a much lower harvest than previous years.  Not sure if the DEC post the dates of harvest data but it would be interesting to see if this theory holds water. 

[Doewhacker]

There are a lot of factors that dictate harvest numbers for gun season, snow for opening being one of the biggest along with timing of the rut.

 

 

I don't think deer will remember a bad weather year, I think it is driven by food availability of the season and instinct.

[Tughill Tamer]

In wmu 6g me and my group of hunters saw significantly less deer movement the whole year from early bow through late muzzleloader I saw 10 deer all year on watch.I typically see an average of 30 to 40 including does and fawns.I was able to harvest one and between the rest of the group of 4 hunters 3 deer were harvested.I think some contributing factors were a bad winter kill last year, to many does being harvested in the area in past years and abnormally warm weather, that's just my opinion

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