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Musicmystery -> RE: How do deer know? (10/18/2009 10:15:14 AM)
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quote:
Tal Tim,
Well, not so many at 4am waking them up year round, clanking all sorta shit around like they are being sneaky.
Yes, that's true--hikers, runners and mountain bikers certainly move about the terrain differently (and more silently).
Regarding "like they are being sneaky," a funny story--
First, all the hunters go to the same places, wondering why there are no deer. Hello. But during rifle season, it's helpful, because I deliberately go where the hunters aren't--both for my own safety and so I don't interfere with their hunt (which I respect).
So one day, I see a teenager coming out of the woods on a usually untraveled trail (not so near a road). When I ask if he's the only one, if he's seen anyone, he doesn't answer, like he's protecting some big secret. Finally I get out of him that his brother is coming shortly. I take the trail branch heading the other direction.
My dog is all excited, pulling (she's in a harness on a 26' retractable lead). Two miles up the trail, I find why (she likes people)--a hunter standing behind a large tree at the edge of a forest patch clear of underbrush. She jumps up before I see him. He bitches that now he has her scent, and that I've ruined his hunt. I decide not to mention that she smelled him two miles away, instantly (or his trail perhaps), and doubtless so have the deer. He's not the kid's brother, though. Knows nothing about that. Hasn't seen anyone else.
As the trail eventually loops back, at the upper edge of the forest patch clear of underbrush (allowing for long sight lines), I come across a very polite, civil, patient hunter behind another tree--the older brother. He asks me if I'm the last one; I tell him about the other hunter and point to his general location.
I continue on my way, past the clear patch and around the dense brush part of the forest--where I see not one, but two deer bolt as we approach, further into the dense brush.
As if sneaky indeed.
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