White-tailed deer engage in fierce battles as rut comes to an end

HAMER — Early Thanksgiving morning as I pulled around a corner on the auto-route through Camas National Wildlife Refuge, my lights caught two white-tailed bucks in a fierce battle. It was half an hour before sunup and with the heavy cloud cover, it was difficult to see what was going on, but the rattling of antlers continued for about ten more minutes.

In the dim light, I watched as the loser staggered into a ravine and lied down while the victor joined a small doe as they headed for a nearby hayfield off the refuge.

It was not the first battle that these two bucks had engaged in. On Monday morning, on the way to hunt rocks with a friend, we stopped by Camas and met a photographer who had witnessed a fight between the two mature bucks. One was exhausted and lying down, while the other pursued a doe.

I spent the next three mornings and a couple of evenings studying the movements and habits of the thirty-four whitetails that I had counted.

Tuesday afternoon, refuge personnel had moved a track hoe back to the headquarters that had been cleaning out the Camas Creek bed, pushing the deer resting out of the willows onto private ground. That evening, most of the deer grazed in a hayfield where I watched a couple of bucks chase and mount two of the does.

I noticed on Wednesday morning, most of the young bucks and some of the mature ones had left the hayfield, but they were not in the area where most of the activity had been happening for the last three weeks. There were several small herds of does and fawns that had scattered around the refuge and the hayfield. Three mature bucks was hanging close to small groups of does, but it appeared that most of the breeding had been done.

Most of the mature does had gone through their first estrous cycle in October, when they were fertile for about 24 to 36 hours. The cycle is caused each fall during a “photoperiod,” which is a time created by the amount of daylight in the day. It is estimated that about 80 percent of the older does will be bred during this first cycle; but if they are not, they will begin the next one in about 28 days. These cycles will continue as some of the doe fawns at six to eight months old will gain enough weight to begin their estrous cycle. To me, it looked like most of the breeding done in the last three weeks were with these young does.

During these latest cycles with less does available, bucks do a lot more chasing of both does and other bucks during the early mornings, late evenings and overcast days. With all this chasing, the bucks lose weight, burning up most of their pre-rut fat when they detect a whiff of a ripe female. This also coincides with more battles between the bucks.

The winner of Thursday’s battle stayed close to the young female while both ate like they were at a Thanksgiving dinner. Meanwhile, I continued to keep an eye on the loser for a couple of hours. He rested for over an hour before he got up and began feeding as he appeared to be leaving the area. He worked his way within 50 yards of my hiding spot, as he appeared to be heading toward Mud Lake. When he saw me, he broke into a slow trot and gave me a wave with his tail.

I made it home for Thanksgiving dinner and a couple of football games. After two years of very few whitetails at Camas, it was great to be able to study them once again. I guess I will now target some mule deer as they are still in their rut.

On my way home, I had to stop for a large muley as he did not look both ways before crossing the road.

By the way, as I was listening to the two bucks fight, I also heard a large flock of sandhill cranes and another flock of snow geese flying south. I hope all of you had an enjoyable and safe Thanksgiving weekend.