From: kdw@icd.ab.com (Kenneth D. Whitehead)
Subject: Re: Self Regulating Populations
Organization: Allen-Bradley Company, Inc.
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 14:57:00 GMT

From article <1992Sep4.144540.14063@icd.ab.com>, by kdw@icd.ab.com 
(Kenneth D. Whitehead):
kw> For example, I think that one of the first things mama deer 
kw> teaches her fawns is to beware of human scent;  the fawns 
kw> probably don't know why, only that mama always acted like it was 
kw> something to be avoided.  Similarly, I believe that their fear of 
kw> gunfire is a learned reaction, for the reasons described above.  

russ@wpg.com (Russell Lawrence) asks:

rl>Several posters have commented that some deer appear to be perfectly
rl>friendly to humans when/where hunting is not allowed, yet nowhere
rl>to be seen by the close of hunting season.

The only deer I've ever seen that appeared to be "friendly" to humans
was at a campground in West Virginia that my wife and I stopped into
on our way to Florida some years back;  This was a wild doe that had
become "tamed" by campers to the point that it would roam around the
campsites looking for handouts, and the thing it seemed to like best was
cigarretes.  (I'm really against treating wild animals like pets;  I 
imagine this deer wound up in somebody's freezer that fall because of
the fact that people had caused it to lose its wariness wrt humans.)

rl> Do you think the female
rl>deer could teach it's infant to make such a critical distinction
rl>between hunting season and non-hunting season? Can you think of
rl>another reason why the friendly deer are nowhere to be found by the
rl>close of the season?

Wild deer are wary of people all the time, hunting season or not.  Here
in Ohio, where I live, we have a booming herd of suburban deer that have
never been hunted, but they will generally not let people near them
at any time.  But this isn't absolute;  recently I saw 2 deer out on a 
driving range in the parks, feeding unconcerned while people hit golf balls
and walked nearby.  But then again, these are deer that have been "tamed"
by close contact to humans with no negative result.  They have gone
many generations with no reinforcement of the reason why they should
be wary of humans.  That isn't true with deer that get hunted.  But wrt deer
making the distinction between hunting season and non-hunting season, I
explained that in my last posting, but I'll repeat myself here in case
you overlooked it:

kw>The sound of gunfire is
kw>different, and it's something they associate with the sight, sound, and smell
kw>of human predators in their territory, as well as the fear and confused 
kw>reactions of the other deer. They fear gunfire because of the things they 
kw>learn to associate it with, not because they have been shot.  I think this is 
kw>true of many of the lessons that they must learn in order to survive.


Female deer in the wild teach their fawns to be wary of humans, period.
You will never have the experience of a "friendly" deer, except in
situations like I've described in previous paragraphs; as I indicated, close
non-threatening contact with humans CAN make them "tame", although this is not 
generally the case.  In short, female deer teach their fawns to be wary
of humans, but probably do not actually communicate the reason why to them;
hunters do that.  After a deer survives one hunting season, he/she knows the
reason.  Contrast that to the fact that a mother doe also teaches her fawns
to be wary of packs of wild canines;  the reason is quickly evident, since they
don't observe hunting seasons.

I think what you are referring to wrt deer being "friendly" is that they
are less wary during the summer months.  People aren't roaming around the
woods the way they do during hunting season.  They'll feed in plain view
in farmers' fields during the summer.   They seem to know that they
aren't in danger.  But as soon as the fall comes around, hunters are in
the woods in numbers, behaving in a manner that let's them know that they
are hunting, IMHO.  (Hey, Russ, it's early in the a.m. and I have the feeling
I'm not communicating this as well as I would like to, but here's what I mean:)
Did you ever watch Wild Kingdom, or any of those nature shows, where they show
vast herds of prey animals on the plain with lions, jackals, and hyenas
roaming around the periphery of the herd?  The prey animals are very wary, but
unless the predators engage in hunting behavior, the prey animals just keep
an eye on them.  As soon as the predators begin stalking, the herd bolts into
stampede.  They KNOW when they're being hunted, by the behavior of the hunters.
Let's face it; prey animals have generations of experience at being prey, and
if they weren't better at learning how to avoid predators than the predators
were at killing them, they'd go extinct pretty quickly.

But understand something else about deer;  only the young and dumb seem to be
naive enough to tolerate attention from humans.  The adults that have lived
through a hunting season will usually disappear from the feeding fields
as soon as they realize a human is looking at them, hunting season or not. 

 






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