ELKINS, W.Va. — When you talk to deer hunters, you’ll likely see their eyes light up when the subject of the rut comes up. Rutting activity among whitetail deer is the period of breeding and tends to make bucks more vulnerable.
You’ll often hear the humorous comparison of a rutting buck and his decision making to that of a teenage boy smitten with a pretty girl. Although it would seem to be a good comparison, it truly is not. Rutting bucks don’t become “dumber” during the breeding period. They don’t necessarily become more bold either, but what they do become is more mobile.
“We think they’re dumb, but they’re actually doing a lot more movement,” said DNR Deer Biologist Jim Crum. “I don’t know that they are any less wary.”
Bucks will expand their home range during the rut. Research nationally indicates a buck will move as far as 500 yards from his home territory or he will move five miles. The distance largely depends on the availability of does to be bred. The drive is to procreate. It’s a cycle which was triggered several months ago with the change in the length of daylight periods each day.
“The trigger started with the daylight changes. The daylight shortens and increases testosterone levels in bucks,” Crum explained. “Estrus cycles are created in does when they get to a certain nutritional level.”
Some will say colder weather will also help trigger the natural breeding cycle. Crum reasons that may or may not be the case. While cooler temperatures certainly don’t hurt, he thinks the changing weather is more coincidence than anything.
The peak of rutting activity in West Virginia comes around the middle of November.
“We back date fetuses in road kill does in the spring and it’s a fairly tight window,” Crum said. “The 14th to the 17th of November, the largest percentage of the deer are bred, at least according to the embryos in the uterus of the road killed does.”
While the peak may be past us now in West Virginia, it’s by no means over. Crum said there is scientific data and he has his own anecdotal data to indicate breeding goes on sometimes as late as the first of the year.
Pinpointing the peak of breeding is important data for state wildlife officials. The traditional opening day of buck season is the Monday before Thanksgiving. Since the date fluctuates on the calendar in some years it is closer to the peak and in other years will be further. Crum said the buck season’s first three days represent the biggest impact on reducing the number of bucks in the state’s deer herd. A key management objective is to make sure that happens after the bulk of the year’s breeding is complete.