Wildlife 4th Edition 2016
Management News
Trophy Care
Harvest a buck of a lifetime? Learn what to do next
Whitetail Callings Tips
Pat and Nicole Reeve share strategies for calling in dominant whitetail bucks
5 Common Rut Misconceptions Learn the truths about the rut.
The Property-less Wildlife Manager Though owning property is the American dream, don’t let that stop you from growing and harvesting the buck of your dreams
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A Letter From the Editor – Mark Peretore Thank you for Subscribing to Wildlife Management News Magazine. We would like to take this time to welcome you to our community of dedicated hunters and land managers. We are committed to bringing you the most truthful and insightful information regarding land and wildlife management practices and products. With that being said, we strongly encourage you to get actively involved in the magazine by submitting questions, photos, feedback and even articles. It is for you that we publish this magazine, and we welcome any input from you to improve and add to it. As hunters and fisherman we make up the greatest power behind wildlife conservation. We contribute the largest portion of funding to all state conservation programs. With nearly 1,000,000 million hunters and fisherman per state, we make up the largest workforce to get the job done. We commend you on taking the next step, putting your boots to the ground, and actively participating in wildlife management. We here at Wildlife Management News are committed to keeping you informed on making the right decisions and following the best practices to improve your habitat and wildlife for generations to follow and to protect the heritage of hunting and fishing for years to come. As outdoor enthusiasts and hunters, we believe strongly in the way of the land. The mechanism that compels us to the great outdoors and the game that thrives on it is in our hearts and souls. It cannot be described and can never be replaced. We live and breathe to do what we do, to carry on the heritage and traditions of those in the past and to pass on our insights to the next generation. To pay homage to what the Lord has given us. Nature has a way of teaching us all. It cannot be tamed and it cannot be controlled, we can only live within it. Wildlife management is a passion of ours and yours, and we hope to continue to bring you to that peaceful place with each edition of Wildlife Management News.
Table of Contents
A Young Veterans Story.............................. 4 The Cellphone Challenge............................ 6 How to Get the Most Out of Trail Cams..... 8 Clipping for Wildlife................................. 12 The Property-less Wildlife Manager......... 15 Whitetail Calling Tips............................... 19 QDM Both Sides of the Coin.................... 22 Trophy Care.............................................. 25 5 Common Rut Misconceptions............... 27 The Other Lyme Disease........................... 31
We sincerely thank you, Mark Peretore CEO and Editor
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A Young Veterans Story Hunts for Healing Turkey Hunt
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approached the invite to the Hunts for Healing Turkey Event with some hesitation after recieving an invite from the program director Mindy Piccotti. Mindy and I spoke at my son’s veteran day program at his elementary school. After eleven-plus years in the Marines, I know I have been blessed to still have my overall health and happiness. Many of my brothers-in-arms have not been as fortunate. After arriving at the Hunts for Healing event in Laceyville on an early May afternoon, it didn’t take me long to realize my hesitation towards being here was a waste of energy. There’s something about getting a group of combat veterans
together…..in no time at all the special connection comes out, and although to the untrained eye it may sound like we are quite cruel to each other in how we ride each other’s fault, it is truly a form of bonding through sarcasm and verbal harassment. Add this special connection to the generosity and friendship of so many local supporters and volunteers and I knew I was in for a great few days. I have been fortunate to call Susquehanna county my home since leaving active duty, so being able to participate in this event not only let me meet and spend time with fellow veterans to relate and talk to, but it also led me to creating some friend-
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ships with some local guys who I can tell will be a part of my life for many years to come. If anyone asks my wife what my greatest passion is (besides my family) she will undoubtedly say “hunting”. However, as much I as loved the mornings being in the turkey woods, it was the camaraderie and friendship that meant the most to me and that I can say is the epiphany of this program. Sometimes the best things for some guys who have gone through some rough times, is simply being with others who can relate. Being able to talk to each other while doing something that you love, and keeps you occupied, is good therapy. The hunting was exhilarating. I was fortunate to be paired up with Top Calls owner Russ Wagner and fellow veteran Travis Rupert. They are both great guys and made the hunt great. We saw lots of turkeys and had some great action and close
calls, but never quite sealed the deal. However I took in a lot of knowledge on calling. Two vets from our group each took a gobbler with their mentors. Overall it was a great time and a great way to make some lifelong friends. The time spent at the lodge when we weren’t hunting really allowed for deep conversations and just an all around great time. The work that Mindy and John Picotti have put in to this operation is evident and the end results present themselves in many positive ways. The local supporting staff was truly amazing. Between the landowners who gave permission to hunt their property, the volunteer cooks who were up before 4 am cooking, and the mentors and guides, everyone went above and beyond the call of duty. I am extremely blessed to have been able to be a part of this program. I look forward to contin-
ued participation in the future, now that I have seen first hand the value it provides to this nation’s warriors, All of whom really benefit from the opportunity to participate in this program. On a side note on the second to last week I was able to harvest a jake with Ken Bach, a lead mentor of the program and someone who I now get to call my friend.
-Michael Myers
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The Cellphone Challenge Leave the distractions behind
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s I settled in my stand for an evening bow hunt, my expectations were slightly diminished as the sweat dripped off my forehead. It was unusually warm for October but it was opening day and I was determined to spend some time in a tree. I was hoping that the
deer would decide to enter an alfalfa field right before sunset. The pre-determined notion was not the only thing that had not allowed me to focus completely on paying attention. I would have had a different mindset if it were cold and during the peak of the rut here in New York. Taking out my smart phone, I texted some family members and friends of mine saying how good it was to be back in the
woods. Being Sunday as well, I was also checking the scores of the football games. Time passed and it was getting closer to when I thought the deer would start to increase their movement. The last 20 minutes or so right before sunset, or “Prime Time�, as my brother likes to call it. Feeling the vibrating phone in my pocket, I removed it and checked it. It was a text message from a friend asking what I was seeing. With my head buried in the hypnotizing glare of letters appearing on the white screen as I replied, I felt compelled to look up. To my right, making her way up the hedgerow was a mature, healthy doe standing right in front of me at 20 yards. She took one more step and then examined my movements. I froze immediately, trying to develop a plan. It took a coordinated effort, stealthily setting the phone down with one hand while trying to pick up my bow with the other. Looking back, I was doomed from the start. Stomping her foot while snorting, she was gone. Busted! Darkness came and I headed back to the truck replaying what happened, well torturing myself was more accurate, something I do after a mishap occurs. Trying to learn from it. The first thing that went through my mind was being on the phone. If I hadn’t been on it, there would
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have been a better chance of seeing that doe before she was right there. The next thought I had is what provoked me; you’re supposed to be out there to enjoy nature but if you are constantly on the phone then are you really in tune with the outdoors? The next time I went out for a hunt I was going to try something, I was not going to take my cell phone, leaving it in the truck. I struggled with this, playing a mental game of tug-of-war. First off, I have a profession where I’m always connected so I experience difficulty being without it. Despite the distractions, there are some positives. They allow us to remain in contact, check weather forecasts as well as wind directions. As I finished prepping for the hunt, the last thing I did was put my cell phone in the truck, knowing quite well that if I just kept it in my pack I would be more apt to use it. I placed it in the console, pausing, not wanting to let go, finally, I was disconnected! I locked the truck and headed out. Not soon after I got to the tree, the panic set in. Is this what detox felt like? I couldn’t believe I had this much anxiety over a phone. A good portion of hunters will never admit that they bring it with them, claiming you shouldn’t but with the trends today, I am willing to bet they are. Why are we, as hunters, so secretive about using them to pass the time?
I have to think that almost everyone brings them into the woods and if you have it, odds are you will use it. Who hasn’t played a game of solitaire during a midday lull in the action? After my heartbeat returned to normal and realizing that this could be beneficial, I started to get back in tune with the natural surroundings. Over stimulated by the sights and sounds at first, the filters had been lifted from my senses: The lush bright green alfalfa sprouts covering the dark brown earth while a juvenile red-tailed hawk perched on the dead limb of a blackened tree due to a previous fire. Hordes of loud and obnoxious Canada geese passed overhead. The tall thin stalks of golden rod, the white flowers of the Queens Ann’s Lace still upright despite what weather was coming. Maple leaves floating to the earth with some still clinging to the trees. The distant aroma of cow manure wafting from far off fields as it was spread to enrich next year’s growth. With the recent explosion of internet challenges, I want to propose a new one. I challenge all hunters to not bring a cell phone into the woods and get back in tune with nature. There’s no need to post a video about it as that would ruin the point. Just observe your surroundings. -Joel Herring
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How to Get the Most Out of Trail Cameras Make the Tools Work for You
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here is a HUGE difference between simply using a trail camera and knowing how to use that camera to give you valuable information that you can effectively use to help you make deer management decisions. I believe there are five core trail camera uses for deer managers. - Age and score deer before hunting them to determine whether they will be a target buck - Determine pre-season whether or not that general area is worth hunting - Find in-season patterns of individual bucks - Study annual patterns of individual bucks - Survey population demographics Age and score deer before hunting them to determine whether they will be a target buck Every time I check a trail camera I sift through the pictures looking for big bucks. Each big buck picture I get I determine whether or not this is a deer I have already photographed or if it is a brand new buck. When I get a picture of a new buck I do my best to age and score the deer. For the highest concentration of buck pictures I like to place my cameras on active scrapes. If there is no scrape where you want to hang a camera then create one! Any time of year, a good licking branch can become a community sign post. This creates perfect picture opportunities.
If the new buck exceeds my standards, he becomes a target buck. I name all the bucks on my hitlist to help stay organized. Some years, I may have three different typical eight pointers and naming each buck helps to avoid confusion. Although I target a specific age class, it is still important to be able to score deer based on trail camera pictures. What you estimate a deer’s gross score to be may influence your decision to pass or harvest a particular buck. Determine pre-season whether or not that general area is worth hunting The purpose of my pre-season trail camera locations is to get a snapshot of the deer herd and help me make decisions on which properties or areas I’ll be hunting in the fall.
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Although I am looking for target bucks I am trying to give myself a general idea of what each property holds beyond just identifying shooters. By hunting season if I want to simply fill the freezer, take a kid hunting, or pursue a target buck I will have an area in mind for each. Pre-season is a good time to let your cameras collect information so that you aren’t wasting your time during season. I have gotten permission to properties during the summer, that look great from an aerial or topography standpoint, but the trail camera shows that deer are just not utilizing the property, most of the time due to human pressure that I have not observed. Although there seems to be high deer traffic in an area, pre-season pictures can let you know that the deer are not getting to that particular
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spot until after dark and you can shift your plans accordingly. Determine in-season patterns of individual bucks No matter what stage of hunting season you are in, you can use current trail camera pictures to help you make immediate decisions. During season, deer patterns will change due to food sources or stages of the rut. Using trail cameras can help ensure that you are hunting a particular buck where he is and not where he was. Bucks may shift where they spend the majority of their time throughout the season. Use trail camera pictures to identify those changes and adapt your strategy accordingly. Study annual patterns of individual bucks Finding annual patterns is my favorite part about using trail cameras. After using trail cameras on the same properties for a few years you can piece together a buck’s annual pattern. The biggest difference between studying in-season patterns and annual patterns is that I am using in-season changes to make immediate adjustments to my hunting strategy that I was not planning on. But, once you have patterned a specific buck for
a couple of years, you can plan on his next move and be there before your cameras even show it. Once you have an annual pattern on a buck, you are one step ahead of his game. Chasing an individual buck is like playing chess, by knowing his annual pattern you already know his next move.
The above pictures are of a deer I call Patch, because he is blind in one eye. In 2014 he showed up on one of my properties to a mock scrape on November 14th at 10:14 a.m. In 2015 he showed up to the
same mock scrape on November 12th at 9:13 a.m. I then looked up the weather conditions on these dates and times and found that both of his visits to this scrape were on a west wind. This year if the conditions are right in the middle of November this could be a great location to capitalize on Patch’s annual pattern during a morning hunt. Survey population demographics If you are not already using trail camera surveys to obtain hard numerical data, you are missing out on one of the best practices for monitoring herd health. A couple years ago, I had a few cameras out on a property during July and was happy to see what I thought was a healthy herd that consisted of does, fawns, and bucks, including a couple shooters. However, it wasn’t until I ran my trail camera survey in late summer and estimated buck age structure for the herd that I realized I was completely missing 3 and 4 year old deer on this particular property. How had I missed this?! I had lots of young bucks and my shooters were 51/2 or older. By running a trail camera survey and taking the time to analyze this data I was made aware of a problem that I would have otherwise overlooked. In addition to gaps in buck
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age structure, trail camera surveys herd health, run the survey twice a may draw your attention to other year. A pre-season survey needs to be details. Maybe there is a growing need done once bucks have fully developed to harvest does. Maybe you have less their antlers, so that they are easily fawns over years of trail camera surdistinguished but before any fall mast veys and it is time to start implement- crops effect the attraction of your ing a more intense predator manage- bait pile. A post-season survey should ment program. A trail camera survey be done immediately after season to is simply a great herd monitoring tool maximize the number of distinguishthat can alert you to decisions that able bucks before antlers begin to need to be made on your property. shed. To conduct a trail camera Lastly, I use a trail camera survey, follow the guidelines providsurvey to more intensely study herd ed by QDMA. Their form is easy to health. I look at things like; How use and can be found if you Google many ticks/insects are on the deer? “QDMA Trail Camera Survey ComHow are the body weights of does putation Form�. and bucks? Are there a group of late Place one trail camera site per born fawns? If you are not already one hundred acres. Run the cameras running trail camera surveys, I chalfor either a ten or fourteen day period lenge you to try it out this year. It is a over shelled corn. Once the survey very easy process once you have done period is over count the total number it once or twice and the amount of of buck pictures, total number of data that results is tremendous. doe pictures, total number of fawn pictures and the number of unique Conclusion bucks. Plug these four numbers If you follow these five core into the QDMA trail camera survey uses for trail cameras you can turn computation form to estimate deer your cameras from a recreational toy density, sex ratio, fawn recruitment to a wildlife management tool. Use and buck age structure on your own. your trail cameras to help you make All of this information is critical for management decisions this season. making harvest recommendations for your property. For a complete picture of -Wesley Delks | 10 | Wildlife Management News | 4th Edition 2016 |
I found the Browning Dark Ops camera easy to set up. There were very few photos without having some animal in the frame. The photos were clear at night and during the day. I am still using the same batteries after hundreds of photos. I am very happy with the camera’s many features and small compact size. The green tree strap and camo color blends well into the surroundings. I have recommended this camera to a friend, several clients and would purchase more of these for myself in the future. Matthew Sellers, Enhanced Habitat
I really like the Browning cam!! Battery life is still over 80% and I put it out a few days after you dropped it off. The camera takes some really nice pix. This Browning Dark Ops is the best camera we run right now. We have a bunch of different Moultries, which have been my favorite. We use one Cuddieback and absolutely hate it. Nothing but problems – I’ll never buy another. We have one WildGame Innovations and it’s OK at best. Good daytime pix but very grainy IR pix. We had one Stealth Cam and got rid of it. Batteries would last three days at best and when it took pix they were not very clear. Michael Koneski
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We have five different brands of trail cameras in use. The new Browning Dark Ops camera is one of the easiest to set up, the instructions are clear and easy to follow. Photo quality is excellent, both day and night and we do not even have it set up with the highest resolution. The nighttime photos are great – on some of our other cameras the pictures are so grainy you can’t tell if you are looking at a buck or a doe. The photos are clear out to a greater distance as well. There doesn’t seem to be any sound with this camera, so that means that it is probably going to last as far as bear contact. Browning has a winner in my book! Dave Sienko
I have recently transitioned my focus on trail cameras towards the product line that Browning offers. With being an avid bow hunter, I rely on my trail cameras to help with my overall success from season to season. Whether I am hanging them on a food plots, travel routes or other food sources, my Browning trail cameras provide me with the highest quality trigger speed, recovery time, detection width and overall range. With the combination of quick trigger speed (.7 seconds) and 2.3 second recovery time, Browning trail cameras ensure that your game will be detected. The thing that impressed me most with the Browning cameras was the detection range. Compared to other brands I have used in the past, the Browning trail cameras trigger pictures of animals as soon as they cross the detection zone, which helps prevent blank pictures. The overall quality of photos is outstanding, both daytime and especially the night pictures taking into consideration the no-glow infrared technology. The overall clarity, focus and brightness of the photos are top notch. In my opinion, Browning has surpassed many of its competitors with the Dark Ops model!Chris Jeffers, Woodsfield, Ohio
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Clipping For Wildlife Outdoor Habitat Management
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ment? Spring and fall clipping require ost landowners start clipno additional work or time, just a ping mowing or bush hogging in September or October before change in the way you clip and knowlhunting season starts. They want that edge of what you are clipping that will benefit you and your wildlife. neat, clean look as well as nice trails Between February 1 (in the to ride on and pretty (almost lawn South) and April 1 (April 15th in the like) open fields to easily see wildlife moving across. While this is beneficial North) is the prime time to complete to the landowner and hunter, it is not 80 percent of your clipping. That time frame is before the breeding and nestbeneficial to wildlife. ing seasons. Spring clipping removes Clipping, in my opinion, the dead and mature vegetation, is the second best tool in wildlife which then promotes new growth. management if preformed correctly and in a timely manner. However late Spring clipping also spreads fall native seed crops and opens up ground to clipping is the most widely used and sunlight, which stimulates new plant the most destructive tool in wildlife management! Why: Some of the most growth. The new annual and perennial forbs beneficial plants for deer, quail, and (some call them weeds) plant growth turkey are annuals and perennials -- -- can have as much as 35 percent that are producing seed from July to protein. These forbs (called soft tissue November. If these plants -- such as plants) and young browse (called partridge pea, ragweed, honeysuckle, woody plants) produce 80 percent of wild plums, blackberries, etc. -- canwhitetail deer nutrition throughout the not produce a seed, they will not year. Forbs’ growing season is between be present next year. Basically, late clipping destroys habitat and decreas- late March and the autumns first killing frost, which is usually late October. es available browse and forbs for all The forbs also supply 90 percent of wildlife. the nutrition of quail, turkey, song I am not telling landowners birds, and other wildlife during the and managers to stop late clipping. winter months. Instead, I’m suggesting you just Spring clipping is easy: clip change the way, amount, and timing everything but shrub bushes and of your clipping. Remember this and trees such as wild plums, blackberries, make it a golden rule: Keep browse below the 4-foot range where wildlife sumac and anything blooming such as can reach it and also keep the browse vetches and everlasting peas. Try to leave at least 15 to 20 young, tender, nutritious, and palpercent cover for wildlife. Only about atable. A good rule of thumb is to 20 percent of the land needs to be have 5 to 20 percent of your land in clipped, in any given year and the need open growth fields 4 feet-tall or less to know your plants is a must. Many clipped on a three to four year rotaof the important plants that produce tion. Whitetail deer will utilize a field seeds for quail and turkey are bloomof 3-foot to 4-foot vegetation much ing from June to October and must more than one that is bare, with no not be clipped. Try not to clip blackcover. berry and wild plum thickets or other What is the proper clipping timesoft mass producing plants/trees. for wildlife habitat improve|frame 12 | Wildlife Management News | 4th Edition 2016 |
Wild plums are endangered in most areas due to landowners “neatness,” or desire to keep edges and old-growth fields too clean. Blackberries and wild plums take two years before soft mast production or fruit production. Blackberries will need a high clipping every four or five years to stimulate new growth. Try to never clip wild plums. If you find it necessary, try not to clip them too close due to small plum trees on the outside of the main body. Learn how to identify plants such as wild plums, partridge peas, blackberries and other wildflowers. These species usually grow in patches or thickets. When you become a novice plant biologist you will clip around these plants and it helps to know the color of their blooms. For instance, partridge peas have a yellow bloom and a pod. Usually anything with a bloom or flower should not be clipped due to their value as seed producers for wildlife. An easy way to do this is to purchase a copy of the National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers and keep it handy. This will help you decided what to clip and not clip. Another good handbook to have is Flowering Plants Important to Bobwhite Quail. Try not to clip open fields using straight rows. Instead, clip mosaic patterns which create more edge, since most wildlife are edge creatures. This also keeps predators from systematically working straight rows. This also allows you to clip around important plants for wildlife and keep the mosaic pattern. These mosaic strips give whitetail deer and other wildlife a safer feeling of cover as well as food such as forbs and browse. When you have completed clipping a field going around shrubs and beneficial plants using a mosaic pattern, many people will say, “How
much have you be drinking today?” Or “Was Jack Daniels driving that tractor?” Many times I have been accused of C.U.I., “Clipping Under Influence.” Fall clipping should be more of a maintenance clipping of roads, trails, fire lanes or shooting lanes and to open up a few areas for food plots and fall annual forbs. Fall clipping
should begin in October and end by November 1. Just remember to open your eyes and pay attention to when and what you are clipping. You will be surprised how much you have changed your habitat by creating a landscape for all wildlife including songbirds and honeybees. If you have land, forested or open and want to manage it for wildlife, look into various wildlife habitat incentives offered by the Farm Service Agency (FSA) or Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Bob Wagner, Soil Conservation Technician at the Susquehanna County NRCS office states that, “NRCS has programs where the landowner can have forestry management plans developed and also wildlife habitat management plans developed. If the landowners al-
ready have current forestry or wildlife management plans the NRCS can help (technical and financial assistance) put good forestry and wildlife habitat management practices on the land. Practices can include: Conservation cover – planting warm season and/ or cool season grasses, tree and shrub planting, site preparation for tree planting, early successional habitat development, forest stand improvement, brush management, riparian herbaceous cover, riparian forest buffer and upland wildlife habitat management.” Landowners/wildlife habitat managers have done all of these habitat improvement practices here in northeast Pennsylvania. -Steve Payne
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The Property-less Wildlife Manager Though owning property is the American dream, don’t let that stop you from growing and harvesting the buck of your dreams By Wesley Delks
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here were tracks everywhere around the water hole. Witnessing how my efforts had instantly gotten the attention of local wildlife gave me great satisfaction. What makes wildlife management so meaningful to me is seeing how my hard work can positively make a change, even if it’s not on land that I own. Of course we all want to own land, it’s the American dream. I always say things like “It’s never going to be the way I want it, till I own it”, and this has some truth to it. But, just because you can’t afford your dream property yet, doesn’t mean you can’t be a wildlife manager. Not owning land should not keep us from pursuing our passion in life and doing something that gives us such great fulfillment. By improving habitat and managing land on other people’s property, you learn countless lessons and make mistakes that you know you won’t make once you own your own land. Gain Access The first step to being able to manage a property is to get access to properties. I personally hunt and help manage 9 properties. 8 of these properties are less than 30 acres and the last property is a slice of heaven at a whopping 350 acres. The story of how I got permission to each property is unique but I would like to go into detail on one of these properties to show you the kind of effort you may need to put in to gaining property access. For the sake of privacy we will call this landowner, Mr. Wagoner. After most hunting and trapping seasons are closed, from January
to March, I spend lots of time looking at online plat maps to find properties that pique my interest. Once I have numerous properties in mind I will spend my free time knocking on doors talking with landowners. This past winter I knocked on at least 40 doors. I typically give a short description of who I am and conclude the conversation by asking if I can shed hunt the property. This is exactly how I finished my conversation with Mr. Wagoner and he said that I could but was very adamant that “no one deer hunts here”! Shed hunting is one of the least invasive and low impact activities you can do on a property, but it also allows me to decide if the property is as good as I thought it looked from the aerial view. While I am scouting/ shed hunting if it looks promising I will go back to the property owner, thank them and ask if I can hang a trail camera. When, I got back to Mr. Wagoner’s I spent lots of time telling him how beautiful the property was and listening to his stories. Eventually I asked about putting up a trail camera and he said that would be fine. At all times while I am on the property I am looking for ways that I can be of assistance to the landowner. While putting up a trail camera on Mr. Wagoner’s land I found a giant, 4 ft diameter, cottonwood that had fallen across his lane, blocking access to the back 10 acres. I asked Mr. Wagoner if I cleared the lane with a chainsaw if I could have permission to hunt. By the time I dropped this question, I had been to the property 3 times, and built a certain level of trust with him. He said if I cleared the lane I could hunt or do anything else I would like on the property! It was amazing that someone who did not allow anyone to deer hunt completely
changed their mind just because I got to know them and helped them with something they needed. These are the types of scenarios that I put myself in, to gain access to hunting and managing properties for people that were complete strangers to me. Not only do you have to be prepared for lots of “No’s” but you also have to be prepared to lose properties. Start Small Once I have permission to be on the property, I always want to start with small changes. Even if the landowner says “Yes, do whatever you want to”, I still like to start with small changes to gauge their commitment to the changes I will be making to the property. I also like to start with small changes because typically larger changes are more expensive. I don’t want to put too much money into a property that I could lose access to tomorrow. After shed hunting, I get permission to hang a trail camera. Once I have permission to hunt, then I am looking to make the next change to the property that will make this property different from the neighboring properties. You have to give deer, and big bucks in particular, a reason to want to spend time in an area, particularly on small properties. Figure out what the limiting factor to the larger area is and then focus on providing that limiting factor on your property. If it is cover, create a thick bedding sanctuary. If it is water, dig a water hole. If it is food, provide the groceries. Since the property isn’t yours though, always start with small improvements that will not alarm the landowner. If you need to provide
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cover, you may think you need to go in and make a 5 acre clear cut, hinge cut on the fringes and plant native grasses, but this type of change will likely have the landowner reconsidering your privileges. This in fact may be the best plan to attract deer to the property, but you have to balance making beneficial changes with keeping the landowner unalarmed. If you want to focus on cover plant shrubs and native grasses, the best way to create thicker cover is to allow more sunlight to reach the forest floor. This requires a chainsaw. However, I have found that wary landowners are typically more receptive to planting than cutting. In places you may have considered a food plot, turn these areas into thick cover instead. In some areas water could be the limiting factor for an area. Simply providing a water source could give deer a reason to come on to your small property. Spending a couple hours digging a water hole could prove to be well worth the efforts in November, as well as providing an excellent place for trail camera picture opportunities. If food is your limiting factor you want to make sure you are providing them food when you are hunting the property. Of course, if you owned the property you would like to have plots on the property that were providing food at all times of the year, but remember to start small. This could mean supplemental feeding, if legal in your state. Or starting with a small, low maintenance annual fall food plot, like Real World Wildlife Product’s Harvest Salad. Communicate It is absolutely critical to be a good communicator when you are
using someone else’s land. I ask lots of questions like “Do you want me to call you every time I am coming to the property?” or “Where is the best place for me to park?” Once you have permission to the property, improve your relationship with the landowner. For me this could mean taking them some of my own pure maple syrup, taking them kayaking or sending them a Christmas card. I continually tell them of my passion for wildlife and show them my passion for habitat improvements. By educating them, hopefully you can show them how they can further help you. They will begin to understand things like; taking a dog for a walk in the woods is putting pressure on the mature buck you have on camera. I like to share trail camera pictures with the landowners. I normally do not send them pictures if it is a giant buck, but pick more heartwarming pictures like a doe and fawn touching noses. I recently got a wireless trail camera and gave the landowner my username and password to the account. This has really opened up some great conversations and got them excited about making changes to the property. Always express your opinions humbly and demonstrate that you have a high standard of ethics. People appreciate and like to know that you follow DNR laws and also have a personal code of ethics. I ask the landowner every time I want to make a change to the property. This includes setting up exclosure cages in plots, hanging tree stands, or other improvements I haven’t done in the past. I want the landowner to know what I am doing and why I am doing it. Being a good communicator with nine different property owners
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can be wearisome, and definitely a hassle at times. Communication is the hardest part of being a propertyless wildlife manager, but it is well worth the reward of getting to pursue my dream without owning property. A joy shared is a joy doubled. By sharing my wildlife experiences with the landowner it is gratifying to see them take part in the process. You Can Do It Too Even though I do not own any property I have gotten to release upland birds, remove invasive species, run trap lines to control predator populations, put up nest boxes, plant countless food plots, dig waterholes, establish native warm season grasses, build wildlife bridges, transplant trees, timber stand improvements, use fire a management tool, make hinge cuts, and many other small projects. In some areas of whitetail country, gaining permission to hunt and manage land that is not your own is like finding gold. I consider myself truly blessed every time I climb into a deer stand because I will not be able to afford my own property for many years and a landowner’s permission is valued more than they know. It is a lot of hard work and effort, but by starting with small changes and communicating well anyone can be a wildlife manager. -Wesley Delks
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Whitetail Calling Tips
Nicole shot her first deer at the age of six and since then has put many record book animals on the ground – Pat and Nicole Reeve Share Strategies for all of them on film. Her personal best Calling in Dominant Whitetail Bucks is a 195” whitetail from her home state of Illinois. Pat has been hunting t was a cool afternoon and the realize it or not, many hunters only for more than thirty-seven years and deer were already on the move spook deer when using a deer call. has an unmatched track record of as I climbed into one of my That’s a shame, because white-tailed taking some of the largest whitetails favorite tree stands. Shortly after deer vocalizations are relatively in the world. Pat has anchored over settling in, I noticed movement at the limited. Compared to waterfowl and seventy-five record book bucks – all edge of the woodlot. A good buck turkey calling, effectively reproducing on camera – and currently holds the was coming my way. key deer sounds is fairly simple – as record for harvesting the largest typ My heart raced as the buck long as you understand a few basics. ical ever on video. The massive 5×5 continued to approach. I carefully Grunts, bleats, snort-wheeze scored an unbelievable 200” gross, reached for my bow and adjusted my calls and rattling are all sounds that 192-3/8 net. Like other elite whitefeet for a comfortable shooting posi- experienced whitetail hunters use to tail hunters, both Pat and Nicole use tion. I began to prepare my mind for their advantage. As with any othcalling to tilt the odds in their favor. what is easily one of the most intense er any game calling situation, field While many hunters subscribe few seconds a bow hunter can experi- experience, observation and practice to the theory that calling is only useence. are critical. Thankfully, learning from ful during certain times of the season, My breathing began to slow other hunters with years of trial and to the contrary, Pat likes calling from as the initial rush of adrenaline error under their belts can speed up the very first days of the early archery subsided. Only a few more steps and the process. season. “I’ll rattle and use the grunt he’d be within range. As I prepared Co-hosts of Driven TV on call from day one, but it is a different to draw, a startling sound pierced the Outdoor Channel, Pat and Nicole style,” he says. “Early season bucks late afternoon stillness. The buck im- Reeve have two full lifetimes of expe- aren’t rutting or fighting, but they are mediately reeled around and bounded rience hunting mature whitetail bucks. serious about establishing a pecking away through the woods in a panic. I watched him through my binoculars until he was long gone, then shifted my view towards the alarming roar coming from the other direction. About 200 yards away, I could see a hunter in an illegally erected tree stand on the private land I was hunting. The guy had a cigarette in his mouth, which he exchanged every ten seconds or so for a grunt call. I could see his chest and cheeks puff-up as if he was blowing a trumpet. You can imagine the dreadful sound it created. Whether they
I
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order. There is a lot of tentative sparring between immature bucks going on. Mature bucks will almost always investigate the sounds of light sparring with a few soft grunts during the early season.” Deer calls come in many shapes and sizes. Some of the best produce a variety of different calls, while allowing for variations in volume, tone and inflection that add critical realism. Both Nicole and Pat use the Flextone Extractor, which produces a wide range of grunts, doe bleats and fawn bawls, and also includes an on-board snort-wheeze call. “Hunters need a call that can do everything well,” Pat says. “And the Extractor gives us everything we need in a single package.” Nicole is a big fan of the Flextone Tine Teaser. This compact call easily fits into a small pocket and
produces a very distinctive and realistic grunt with plenty of volume. Pat believes a lot of hunters grunt too softly and fail to get the attention of the deer they’re calling to. “If a buck doesn’t stop or react in some way, he probably didn’t hear you.” But there is a fine line, he warns: “You don’t want to give a wise old buck the opportunity to pinpoint your location and pick you off.” An important feature of this small, soft, flexible call is that it can be used hands free. “You can hold this call in your teeth and use it to stop a buck while at full draw,” Nicole adds. Pat and Nicole also use rattling throughout most of the season. “I’ll sometimes smash my Flextone Battle Bones once to get a buck’s attention,” Pat says. “I want him to stop or turn in my direction. If he does, I’ll wait until he looks back the
| 20 | Wildlife Management News | 4th Edition 2016 |
other way or lowers his head to feed and then I’ll hit him with a loud grunt that I’m sure he can hear. Hopefully, at that point, he’ll forget where he was going, turn and head my way to investigate.” While the Reeves employ calling strategies throughout the entire hunting season, they warn hunters to be careful of rattling and grunting too much late in the rut or post-rut periods, as subordinate bucks may be much less enthusiastic about confrontation with other bucks. “Rattling and grunting may still be effective on dominant bucks at these times, but not always,” Pat says. “Be observant and pay close attention to a buck’s body language.” Blind calling can be an effective strategy when done properly. Not surprisingly, however, being impatient and constantly belting out grunts and
bleats will rarely yield good results. Pat and Nicole use bleat calls blindly every hour or so from the beginning of the season through the rut as a shout out to any deer that may be in the area. “Deer are naturally curious animals,” says Nicole. “Doe bleats sometimes bring other deer in to investigate. Other times, it simply puts nearby deer at ease.” That said, Pat and Nicole still prefer grunt calls and rattling to target specific deer, as they consistently hunt mature, dominant bucks that respond well to those more aggressive buck sounds. The aggressive snort-wheeze is another vocalization that Pat and Nicole sometimes use, but typically only as a last resort. Many hunters are reluctant to use this call, and rightly so, as it does have the potential to run lesser bucks off. But while subordinate bucks may turn tail and run upon hearing the ultra-aggressive sound of a mature buck’s snortwheeze, it’s a sound that can bring big studs in when all other calls fail – especially when used in combination with a decoy. Pat explains: “If I have a decoy out and a buck I’m calling has seen it but not responded, I’ll use the snort-wheeze to make him believe another dominant buck sees him and is ready to defend my decoy – especially if I have rattled or grunted without a favorable result.” Watch his demeanor and body language carefully. “If he’s a dominant deer, he simply won’t tolerate the kind of challenge a well-executed snort-wheeze represents.” Given the proper timing and technique, many white-tailed deer – especially mature bucks – will react favorably to calling. I’ll never forget the first big buck that came to my grunt call. As our experts have warned, the deer initially ignored my
softer calling. When I turned-up the volume, however, the bruiser turned and stomped in with the hair on the back of his neck standing up. My wife dropped him with a perfectly placed 18-yard shot. I have no doubt: We would not have killed that deer on that
frosty November morning without a grunt call. Calling is one of the most rewarding and productive techniques in all of hunting, yet many deer hunters haven’t embraced it – possibly due to negative results from improper past attempts. Combine proper calling techniques with effective decoy and scent strategies for a deadly presentation this fall. -Jay Anglin | www.wildlifemanagementnews.com | 21 |
QDM - Both Sides of the Coin
Quality Deer Management has Come a Long Way. Lets Review the Pros and Cons
Q
DM is a household name in the deer hunting world today. You’d be hard pressed to find a deer hunter that hasn’t heard of it, and surveys show the majority of hunters practice some form of it. A decade ago there was much personal and professional debate over the merits of QDM. Those arguments still exist in a few hunting camps today, but they’re largely gone from the professional community. That said, it doesn’t mean that QDM is flawless or that it is preferred by all hunters. QDM clearly has some negative attributes. Fortunately, its benefits far outweigh them, and in the spirit of full disclosure, here are some of the pros and cons of this popular deer management strategy. A little Background Quality deer management (QDM) is a management strategy that unites landowners, hunters, and resource managers in a common goal of producing healthy deer herds with balanced adult sex ratios and age structures. This approach typically involves protecting young bucks while harvesting an appropriate number of antlerless deer to maintain
herds within existing environmental and social constraints. A successful QDM program requires an increased knowledge of deer biology and active participation in management. This level of involvement extends the role of the hunter from mere consumer to manager. The progression from education to understanding bestows an ethical obligation on the hunter to practice sound deer management. Consequently, to an increasing number of landowners, hunters, and deer managers QDM is a desirable alternative to traditional and trophy deer management. Texas is the formal birthplace of QDM. Beginning in the late 1960s, wildlife biologists Al Brothers and Murphy Ray Jr. began formalizing their novel ideas on deer management, which they outlined in their 1975 book, Producing Quality Whitetails. The QDM movement gained momentum in Texas during the 1970s, and was brought to the Southeast in the early 1980s by South Carolina DNR wildlife biologist Joe Hamilton (who later formed the QDMA). Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, QDM gained popularity throughout other portions of the whitetail’s range, and by the year 2000, dozens of states and thousands of hunters had implemented QDM programs on millions of acres of
| 22 | Wildlife Management News | 4th Edition 2016 |
private and public lands across the United States. Currently, 23 states implement buck harvest guidelines in at least a portion of their state designed to protect the majority of yearling bucks from harvest; eight of those states implement the harvest guidelines statewide for at least one buck in the bag limit. A 2013 survey of Bass Pro Shops customers who had purchased deer hunting supplies within the past year showed 82 percent of respondents claimed to follow QDM principles while deer hunting. Without question, QDM is clearly the most desirable and biologically sound deer management approach for today’s whitetail herds, and the most enjoyable for the majority of hunters. QDM Pros Practicing QDM produces many benefits. Typically, the sex ratio becomes more balanced and the number and proportion of bucks in the older age classes increases. Often, more mature bucks are available for breeding, resulting in less stress on yearling bucks, and an increased presence of mature bucks for sportsmen and women to photograph and hunt. Mature bucks rub and scrape more than young bucks, and they tend to vocalize more which can add excitement for hunters. Deer health and body weights can improve with enhanced habitat conditions, which also benefits numerous other wildlife species. Deer herds in balance with the habitat also help reduce crop damage and deer/vehicle collisions. A few bullet items of benefits include: • Improved balance between deer herd and habitat • Improved habitat for deer and other wildlife species • Improved buck age structures
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• Improved health of deer herd • Improved knowledge of hunters/conservationists • Improved opportunity to hunt mature bucks • Improved connection between hunters, the habitat, and deer herd
QDM, but it is a misconception that must be managed for. A few bullet items of cons associated with QDM programs include: • The misconception that you have to own large tracts of land to practice QDM • Some hunters forget to have “fun” as they get wrapped up in seQDM Cons lective buck harvest and/or increased However, not all sportsmen antlerless harvest and women enjoy the benefits of • Buck harvest is often reduced QDM. Where high deer populations during first one to two years exist, initial QDM programs gener• Some hunters focus too much ally result in a temporary reduction on antlers in buck harvest and an increased • QDM can be an expensive, doe harvest. As such, QDM often time-draining hobby, compared to requires a change in hunting practraditional methods of deer hunting tices and a new mindset, and not all • QDM may limit/prohibit hunters prefer or enjoy this. Some access for some hunters hunters also have a misconception Like anything deer-related, that QDM is actually trophy deer there are two sides to the coin for management where bucks cannot be this popular management strategy. harvested until they are fully mature Fortunately, the positives far outshine and at least 5.5 years old. This is not the negatives, and hunters across | 24 | Wildlife Management News | 4th Edition 2016 |
the whitetails range are reaping the benefits of deer herds being managed under QDM guidelines for the past decade or more. For example, in 1999 hunters shot more antlerless deer than antlered bucks for the first time in our history. This was a monumental step toward balancing deer herds with the habitat. The percentage of yearling bucks in the antlered buck harvest has steadily dropped from 62 percent in 1989 to 33 percent in 2014. Amazingly, in 2014 hunters shot more bucks that were 3.5 years and older than yearling bucks! Wow, what a great time to be a deer hunter! For a comparison of QDM to traditional and trophy deer management see https://www.qdma.com/ articles/qdma-vs-trophy-and-traditional-deer-management-stratgies, and good luck in the woods this fall. -Kip Adams
Trophy Care Big Buck Down! Whats Next?
A
nyone who plops their money down at the taxidermy shop wants and expects a great looking mount. Hunters expect a lot from their taxidermist and that’s reasonable. But remember: He or she can only work with what they’re brought. Many hunters don’t fully understand or consider how their own actions in the field impact the quality (or lack thereof) of their finished mounts. Follow these eight tips to thrill your taxidermist and maximize your own gratification when the exciting time to pick up your completed trophy arrives. Talk to your taxidermist Select a quality taxidermist and talk with them before your hunt. Explain where and how you’ll be hunting, what animal(s) you’ll pursue, and what resources you’ll have access to. Your taxidermist will be pleased to provide you with specific instructions for field dressing, caping or skinning (if necessary) and overall care of your animal to ensure the best possible mount. If you will be hunting in a location with no immediate access to a taxidermist or freezer, ask your taxidermist for detailed instructions on skinning and salting the hide. This is the only way to preserve your hide for mounting when hunting in remote or wilderness situations. Be aware that salting is only effective when the entire hide is skinned (including head and feet) and properly fleshed out. Be prepared Make sure you leave enough room in your hunting pack for the gear that will allow you to take care of your trophy. Other than knowledge, the most important tool for proper trophy care in the field is a knife with a sharp blade. Multiple knives or individual knives with different specialized blades are helpful. Be sure to pack one or more sharpening tools to keep all blades in top shape. If you don’t already pack toilet paper, throw a roll in your pack to help clean blood off the hide. A bright light or headlamp will ensure you can clearly see what you are doing while
field dressing or skinning after dark. Do’s and don’ts of dragging Once your animal is down, try to avoid dragging it – especially with a rope. A rope around the neck almost always removes and damages hair, while rocks, sticks and the ground itself can also easily damage or puncture the hide. Instead, get it back to the truck or camp by placing it on a sled, rickshaw, or ATV. If you absolutely need to drag it, grab the animal by the antlers and lift as much of the | www.wildlifemanagementnews.com | 25 |
front of its body as possible off of the ground. Never drag an animal by the hind legs. Field dressing Again, obtain specific field dressing instructions from your taxidermist before the hunt. Don’t cut open the chest cavity if you plan to have a shoulder mount made, and never slit the throat. Don’t make any cuts above the brisket or breastplate. Make your cuts with a sharp knife or gut hook. Always cut with the blade up. Once opened, cut the diaphragm away from the ribs all the way to the backbone area. Reach into the forward chest cavity, find the esophagus (wind pipe), and cut it off as far up in the neck as possible. Grasp the esophagus firmly and pull downward in a continuous motion to remove all the entrails. Bottoms up Never hang any animal by the neck; it stretches the neck and may
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damage the hide. For deer-sized game, portation. Don’t let it roll or bounce use a gambrel and hang it by the hind around in a dirty pickup bed. Take legs. care to clean off all blood prior to transport, and wrap the animal or cape Caping / skinning in an old sheet or blanket. Caping or skinning your big game trophy is best left to your Get to it taxidermist. Damage to a hide can be Many trophies are comprocostly to repair, and some types of mised within the first few hours, as damage simply can’t be fixed. If you bacteria begin to attack quickly after must skin your trophy yourself, condeath, especially in warm, humid sider leaving the head attached to the weather. Completely skin, flesh and cape, and let your taxidermist turn out salt your hides (per your taxidermist’s the delicate eyes, nose, lips and ears. detailed instructions) as quickly as possible when hunting in remote areas. Keep it clean Heat and moisture are the two main Blood left on a hide for any causes of hair slip. When hunting length of time can easily leave percloser to home, keep every animal as manent stains. Clean any blood off cold as possible and bring it in to your areas of the hide that will be mounted taxidermist as soon as possible. with snow or water as soon as possible. You remembered the toilet paper, right? Place some inside the animal’s mouth and nostrils to stop blood from -Josh Lantz leaking out – especially while hanging. Take care of your trophy during trans-
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| 26 | Wildlife Management News | 4th Edition 2016 |
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DR. DEER’S
Management Calendar By Dr. James Kroll
5 Common Rut Misconceptions
O
By James C. Kroll
f the hundreds of questions I am asked each year, the most frequent involve the rut in some manner. There still seems to be a great deal of confusion about the breeding biology of whitetails, and there remains considerable misinformation about the rut. Yet, How many words and pages on this subject have been published in the past three decades? I would guess a stack of magazines with articles on the rut would come close to reaching the top of one of our highest mountains? So, in this article I will address the five greatest misconceptions I have noticed among hunters. We begin with the number one question. Cold weather triggers the rut Each fall I read some of the most frustrating material in outdoor magazines, not to mention what I hear and see on TV about what triggers the rut! White-tailed deer are short day breeders, meaning as days become shorter certain physiological changes take place that prepare them for the breeding season. Their brain keeps track of day length in a curious “reverse” manner, using the concentration of melatonin (a chemical produced at night) in the blood. The pineal gland (actually a vestigial third eye) in the brain secretes this hormone, which in turn is monitored by two other brain organs, the hypothalamus and suprachiasmatic nucleus (the actual brain clock). Production of various sexrelated hormones then
is stimulated to affect the testes and ovaries. Oddly enough, my research supports an odd relationship between the full moon and whitetail breeding. Most races of whitetails “want” to breed shortly after a full moon. Which moon is dependent on the subspecies or race involved. The most well-known full moon is the “Harvest Moon,” occurring sometime in September. The next full moon, less wellknown, has been called the “Hunter’s Moon,” for at least 400 years in Europe. That is because red deer tend to breed on or about this moon. The succeeding full moons have no names, but are involved in whitetail breeding. The Avery Island race of whitetails, occurring from southern Louisiana along the Gulf Coast to just north of Corpus Christi, Texas tends to breed in late September to early October (Hunter’s Moon), while other races will key on later moons. Doing so allows whitetails to fawn at a time that in turn leads to the proper time for fawns to wean. At this time, they are on their own in regard to food. Late breeding in south Texas deer, I believe is timed to the hurricane season; v fawns will wean just after a period of major rainfall that stimulates forage growth. Cold weather has no real effect on when deer breed. The reason so many hunters think it does is, just like humans, deer feel more comfortable when the temperatures are cooler.
There also is an increased need to acquire calories. So, the fact you see more deer moving during colder weather does not mean temperature triggered the rut. Does manage to get pregnant perfectly well, even during unusually warm Fall conditions. This definitely is a misconception! All bucks breed I am particularly interested in this one, since there has been a lot of press lately about DNA studies on how many offspring individual bucks produce. One study (R. W. DeYoung, S. Demarais, K. L. Gee, R. L. Honeycutt, M. Hellickson and R.A. Gozales, 2009 Journal of Mammalogy) in particular drew a lot of attention, when they concluded yearling and two-year old bucks breed, and contribute 3033% of offspring to the population. The study was conducted in three geographic areas—King Ranch (Texas), Nobel Foundation (Oklahoma) and Noxubee Refuge (Mississippi). The authors were “surprised” to discover not all offspring were produced by “dominant” bucks. This was not surprising to me! If we examine the results of this study, it does indeed fit what we have known for some time about whitetail breeding, especially in places where poor sex and age structure are encouraged by traditional deer management. The graph below summarizes the findings of DeYoung, et. al.
| www.wildlifemanagementnews.com | 27 |
100% PURE WHITETAIL DEER URINE | THE HUNT STARTS HERE Margins over 40% in North America, produces a breeding system favoring older bucks. Second, the “name of the game” in natural selection is getting more of your offspring into the next generation. It is about differential reproduction, not There are two important total dominance of breeding. That is aspects of this study. First, the herds elementary genetics where I was eduat the Noble Foundation and King cated! Furthermore, we tend to forget Ranch, progressively contained a high- about the fact over half the surviving er proportion of older bucks; and, the offspring of bucks are does; and, the populations with more mature bucks majority of the younger bucks doing resulted in more offspring from this some breeding actually are sons. age class. It is obvious to me under a The take home message on more natural buck age structure, that this misconception is natural deer occurring prior to European hunting herds favor more offspring from ma| 28 | Wildlife Management News | 4th Edition 2016 |
ture bucks; and, over-harvest of bucks leads to poor age structure and heavy stress on immature bucks. This certainly is a case for managing for older bucks. The old does come into estrus first This one is a natural extension of the above discussion. For years, “old time” deer biologists have insisted older does are necessary for successful production of fawns, especially in colder climates. The typical rut curve shows three peaks, one for older does, a smaller one for young does, and in some cases, a small peak as much as two months later for doe fawns. The reality is, when deer herds are in good condition and under proper nutrition, there is little difference in timing of estrus for old and young does! I also have seen as much as 60% breeding in a later estrus by doe fawns under such conditions. I have been working for some years at the Turtle Lake Club in the northern tip of the
Lower Peninsula of Michigan. We discovered when the herd was reduced to productive capacity and provided adequate nutrition, younger does were just as successful as the “old girls” left by years of inadequate doe harvest. So, the answer to this one is, young does are just as likely to breed early in the rut, provided the herd is being managed for younger age structure. This promotes a more exciting and pronounced rut, making YOUR hunt more enjoyable. Why worry about sex ratios, when all does get bred? Boy, this is one misconception that really gets under my skin! In my early days as a biologist in eastern Texas, I grew tired of hearing someone stand up at a public hearing and proclaim, “I am against shooting does, you only need one bull for several cows.” First of all, deer are not cows! The breeding biology of the two species could not be more different. The reproductive tracts of bucks are not designed to breed large numbers of does. I compared weight-related semen production for cows and deer, finding bucks are not even in the same league as bulls. Poor age structure leads to what I long ago called a “trickle” rut. It is characterized by a few does (usually the older ones) coming into estrus, then a delay followed by a few more. In most cases, the first does to achieve estrus are the ones that lost their fawns to poor nutrition. You probably have seen such does in your hunting career. They are easy to recognize in your herd. Think about the does that show up on your food plot in September. There are some with worn out reddish summer hair, and there are those that already have a nice gray winter coat. The latter are the ones that lost fawns, and are no longer nutritionally stressed. Yes, in most cases most of the
does do get bred, even under terribly skewed sex ratios. However, it is more when they are bred than if. A prolonged breeding season leads to prolonged fawning season, which in turn leads to poor fawn survival and recruitment. It also places severe stress on bucks, particularly the immature ones discussed above.
close contact with the external portion of the doe’s reproductive tract. It is well-known, does do not stand for mounting immediately on approach by a buck. Rather, they tend to be coy and run off with the buck in hot pursuit. This probably guarantees several important biological events, including battle for her “favors” among other bucks joining in the chase. We comBucks follow estrous scents to find monly have folks tell us about seeing does. a doe come running by their stand, I saved this one for last, followed in a few minutes by a buck because it is one that intrigues me with his nose to the ground much like the most. We have done considerable a hound. The observer, we feel makes research on scent communication in a sound observation but a very weak whitetails, much of which contradicts interpretation. The hunter presumes common “wisdom” about the topic. the buck is tracking estrous scent left First of all, we have been conducting behind as the doe runs. What we now artificial breeding for almost 20 years think is he actually is following scent to support our genetics research. Part from her inter-digital gland, which of this work involves bringing does pretty much is unique to each deer. into estrus at an exact time so we can That precisely is why that same hunter artificially breed them. A offshoot of will report another buck coming by this work involves clearly the vaginal later and completely ignoring the trail tract of mucus produced when a doe taken by the doe and her suitor. Since is about to ovulate. Out curiosity, we he was not there to observe the physdecided to conduct field research on ical behavior or to investigate the doe the attractiveness of this material. personally, he just assumes it is anothAfter all, if anything contains estrous er deer that passed by. scent, it would have to be vaginal mu- Finally, the gangs of bucks that cus. We collect the liquid directly from assemble around a doe approaching the doe and placed it immediately into estrus is erroneous thought to come to an ultra-freezer. Later we took the a scent in the air. We now think they material to the field in a special cold come to the sound of the growing container and deposited it in mock chase than from any scent in the air. scrapes. To date, we never have gotten I have hundreds of observations of bucks to pay much attention to the bucks coming to such a chase from material! upwind, making it physically impossi This and other research we ble for him to be reacting to an odor. have conducted over the years bring Hopefully, this article has us to the following thoughts. First of cleared up some of the misconcepall, pure logic would dictate that the tions I commonly encounter over the chemical (and we think there are sever- range of whitetails. In spite of science, al) produced when a doe comes into there still will be firm belief in some estrus has to be shortlived. If not, the of the 5 misconceptions discussed woods would turn out to be a pretty above. A lot of folks conform to a confusing place! Direct courting and good friends scientific law: “If I hadn’t breeding observations support a buck believed it, I wouldn’t have seen it with gains interest in a doe from both phys- my own eyes!” ical postures and behavior, followed by -Dr. James C. Kroll | www.wildlifemanagementnews.com | 29 |
Lyme Disease Symptoms Please check if you have the symptoms listed below: • Stiffness of the joints or back? • Tingling, numbness, burning or stabbing sensations? • Facial paralysis - Bell’s Palsy? • Double or blurry vision, floaters, pain, light sensitivity? • Buzzing or ringing in ears, ear pain, sensitivity to sound? • Dizziness, poor balance, increased motion sickness? • Light-headed? • Confusion, difficulty thinking? • Difficulty with concentration, reading, or following plots? • Decreased short term memory loss? • Disorientation, getting lost, going to wrong places? • Difficulty with speech, think one thing and another word
comes out? • Mood swings, irritability, depression, crying for no reason? • Disturbed sleep - increased, decreased or nightmares, night sweats? • Exaggerated symptoms from alcohol? • Diagnosis of Carpal Tunnel, Chronic Fatigue, Epstein Barr or M.S.? • Do you feel like dying? • Have you seen multiple doctors without success? • Do people say you are a “hypochondriac” or tell you it’s in your head? Dr. Gregory and Debra Bach
THE BRAVEST RESCUE PUPPY
• Unexplained fever, chills, or sweats? • Unexplained weight changes, gain or loss? • Fatigue, tiredness, especially around 3 P.M.? • Unexplained swollen glands? • Chronic sore throat or sinus infections? • Testicular/pelvic pain? • Unexplained menstrual irregularity? • Irritable bladder or bladder dysfunction? • Sexual dysfunction or loss of libido? • Stomach problems? • Change in bowel function, constipation, diarrhea? • Chest pains? • Shortness of breath/cough? • Heart palpitations, heart block, racking heart, slow beat? • Muscle pain/cramps? • Joint pain/swelling that come & go - knees, hips, ankles, wrists? • Twitches of facial or other muscles? • Headaches, sometimes days at a time? • Neck creaks/cracks stiffness?
©
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DR. GREGORY PAUL BACH D.O., F.A.A.I.M., P.C.
BOARD CERTIFIED FAMILY MEDICINE Board Certified Addiction Medicine • Board Certified Integrative Medicine • Congressional Medical Advisor 670 Mill Road, Hamburg, PA 19526 (Near Cabelas) By Appointment Only (610) 488-8030 • (610) 488-8048 Fax Founding Board Member of ILADS • Chair of Subcommittee on Education Governors Lyme Disease Task Force Act 83 | 30 | Wildlife Management News | 4th Edition 2016 |
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The Other Lyme Disease, Borrelia-Relapsing Fever By Dr. Gregory Paul Bach, D.O., F.A.A.I.M., P.C.
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year ago I had a 21-year-old white female come to my office. She was very sick and was dropping out of college. She was a finance major and very bright. She came with her mom, who looked very familiar to me. I asked her mom how she knew to come to see me and she answered “Why you took care of my husband.” The patient’s father came to me about 15 years ago when I was researching the connections between Lyme Disease and ALS. He was one of my ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) patients with Lyme Disease. I only got to see him 3 times and I remember he had ended up getting sick and going into the hospital. She told me that the 3 treatments I gave him extended his life 5 more years. I thought she would be upset with me but she and her daughter were grateful to have the extra time with him, he worked as a stock broker. The average age of an ALS patient from diagnosis to death is within 9 months to 2 years, it’s also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. An article was featured in People Magazine in 2003, called the “Hidden Plague”, concerning another patient of mine. He was 30 years old and diagnosed at a major university in Maryland. He was told that he only had months to live. I remember this case quite clearly because I never had a patient come to me telling me that he’s supposed to be dead by April 1st. He had a hard time speaking because his throat and speech area
was affected by what looked like ALS. At that time I was taking care a number of his neighbors who were suffering from Lyme Disease. At his request, I did a full work up on him, to my surprise he showed positive for Lyme but showed full symptoms of Bulbar ALS. I found a bull’s eye rash on the back of his head, I treated him for many months, he survived and went on to name his son after me and became a doctor himself (1). A side note, Where did Lou Gehrig live? He lived in Lyme, Connecticut (town where Lyme Disease was first discovered); I know this because around the time I was working with this patient, I picked up a 26-year-old white male who was a landscape caretaker of the Lou Gehrig’s Estate. He came in with what looked like Lou Gehrig’s Disease, we later confirmed it was Lyme Disease. I was able to reverse his ALS
symptoms and he is still alive and well today. So, my 21-year-old patient was actually scared she was going to die like her father did from ALS. She had less than 12 months to graduate, her straight A grades were dropping to the point where she couldn’t even attend her classes. So, I did my usual work up on her and looked for many coinfections, that includes not only Lyme Disease but more than 24 other diseases that can travel with Lyme. This is an important statement because most people are so focused only Lyme Disease, they don’t realize the other 2-3 dozen diseases that travel with it can be just as crippling. Some of these coinfections include Ba- be-
| www.wildlifemanagementnews.com | 31 |
siosis, Bartonella, Ehrlichiosis, Rickettsiosis, Q fever, Epstein Barr Virus, Parvovirus, Mycoplasma Pneumoniae, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Cytomegalovirus, C. Pneumoniae, TBRF, and HHV-6 (2).
As an example, I recently had a conversation with a potential patient who had just been bitten by a tick. He thought the best way to handle a tick bite was to try this new test that
will show Lyme Disease in 5 minutes or less. I explained to him I couldn’t vouch for the validity of this test. It’s not just Lyme Disease that can hurt you it’s the other 2-3 dozen diseases that can travel with it (2). Back to my 21-year-old patient, whom was now very sick and dying. I tested her for Lyme Disease but the re-
sults showed it was partially positive, not enough to satisfy the CDC criteria. So, out of desperation I contacted my research lab that I was using and asked the director to look for any other diseases this patient could have. So, she went into her profile of all the diseases she had available at the lab and put everything into the blood analysis she could think of. Well, “low and behold” to my great astonishment, I received the results for the
| 32 | Wildlife Management News | 4th Edition 2016 |
analysis that read TBRF (Tick Borne Relapsing Fever). I’ve been in this field for over a quarter century and I’ve only ever read about this type of disease, that was usually seen in North Africa, Europe and South America (5,6). I realized that it is possible that the patients that don’t show positive for the regular form of Lyme disease, called Borrelia burgdorferi, may have the brother disease called Borrelia-Relapsing Fever. What a profound revelation. My current research is proving this to be true. The patient was treated and returned to her studies. She went on to graduate from college as a finance major and followed in her father’s footsteps as a stock broker. I now had to look at all of my new patients that were coming in. I found that the ones who were hard to get a positive test for Lyme Disease were also infected with the brother species Borrelia (Relapsing Fever TBRF). Relapsing Fever can be found all over the world except for a few areas in the southwest Pacific (7,8). It would cause epidemic cycles of diseases (7,8). This was also seen in the trenches of WWI, where the soldiers would be in close proximately to each other and the disease was often transmitted by fleas. The last great epidemic occurred during WWII in North Africa and Europe causing an estimated 50,000 deaths (14). Louse-borne relapsing fever remains epidemic in the highlands of central and east Africa (Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Chad) and in the south
American Andes (Bolivia, Peru) (9). TBRF is caused by a tick genus (Ornithodorids) these ticks inhabit caves, decaying wood, rodent burrows and animal shelters, the range of movement is less than 50 yards (10). They use these rodent vectors (Vector is anything used to transmit a disease) to carry them into the world and inhabit human dwelling. They come at night (3) and they are night feeders; they have a way of creating a painless bite (7,8). Whereas other tick borne diseases, like Lyme disease have a more painful bite. In TBRF, Borrelia these blood meals of ticks multiply rapidly and within hours invade all tissues, including salivary glands, excretory organs and the genital system (10,11). They are excreted from the salivary glands during the feeding process of the tick (10,11). There was another large outbreak of tick-borne relapsing fever in the western hemisphere, it occurred when 62 campers who were residing in log cabins in Arizona became infected in 1973 (12). These zoomantic plagues may have killed a number of natural rodent hosts (8). This type of Borrelia Relapsing Fever has an acute onset of a high fever, severe headaches, Arthralgia and lethargy. Physical findings may include altered senses, red sclera (whites of eyes), enlarged spleen or liver, stiff neck, lung crackles, swollen lymph nodes, and jaundice (Yellowing of skin) (13). This crisis may be associated with fatal hypotension and shock, but that’s not often the case. After 7 to 10 days, fevers and symptoms typically recur suddenly. The durations and the intensity progressively decrease with each relapse (15, 16, 17). Hemorrhage can be common, 30% have neurological problems, some may include cranial nerve palsy and seizures (13, 14). So, when the doctor suspects Lyme Disease, but the tests come
back repetitively negative. They should then consider testing for the other Borrelia species (relapsing fever). This might be one of the missing pieces of the puzzle as to why some patients remain symptomatic even when their diagnosing doctor’s tests for Lyme Disease come back negative. This doesn’t mean that they aren’t infected with TBRF or one of the many other coinfections that travel with Lyme Disease.
8. Burgdorfer W. The epidemiology of relapsing fevers. In: Johnson RC, ed. The Biology of Parasitic Spirochetes. New York: Academic Press; 1976: 191. 9. Felsenfeld, O. The problem of relapsing fever in the Americas. Indiana Med. 1973;42:7. 10. Dworkin, MS. Schwan TG. Anderson DE. Tick-borne relapsing fever in North America. Med Clin NA. 2002;86:417-433. 11. Davis, GE. The endemic -Dr. Gregory Bach relapsing fevers. In: Hull TG, ed. Diseases transmitted from Animal to Man. Springfield, IL: Charles C References Thomas; 1955: 552-565. 1. Heyman, J.D. and Fowler, 12. Centers for Disease Control Joann. Hidden Plague. People Magaand Prevention. Relapsing Fever. zine. June 16, 2003. Volume 59. No. Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 1973;22:24223. Page 123. 246. 2. Bach, G. Attention Hunt13. Southern PM Jr, Sanford ers; Warning!. Wildlife Management JP. Relapsing Fever: A Clinical and News. 4th Quarter 2014. Page 19. microbiological review. Medicine. 3. Auerbach, Paul S. (2012). Wil- 1969;48:129-149. derness Medicine (6th Edition) Ch. 51 14. Cadavid D, Barbour AG. Tick-Borne Diseases. Traub, Stephen Neuroborreliosis during relapsing J., Cummins, Gregory A. Page 165. fever: Review of the clinical manifesChina: Elsevier. tations, pathology, and treatment of 4. Mandell, G.L., Bennett, J. E., infections in human and experimental & Dolin, R. (2010). The Principles animals, Clin Infect Disease. 1998; and Practice of Infectious Diseases 26:151. (7th ed.) Ch. 241 Borrelia Species. 15. Jongen VHWM, Van RooseRhee, Kyu Y., Johnson, Warren D. malen, J, Tiems J, et al. Tick-borne pages 3067-69 Philadelphia, PA: Else- relapsing fever and pregnancy outvier. come in rural Tanzania. Acta Obstet 5. Felsenfeld O, Borrelia: Strains, Gynecol Scand. 1997;76:834. Vectors Human and Animal Borreloi- 16. Dupont HT, La Scola B, Wilsis. St. Louis: Warren H. Green; 1971: liams R, et al. A focus of tick-borne 180. relapsing fever in southern Zaire. Clin 6. Bryceson, ADM. Parry EHO, Infect Dis, 1997;25:139. Perine PL, et al. Louse-borne relaps17. Borgnolo G, Hailu B, Cianing fever. A clinical and laboratory carelli A, et al. Louse-borne relapsing study of 62 cases in Ethiopia and a fever: A clinical and an epidemiologreconsideration of the literature. Q J ical study of 389 patients in Asella Med. 1970; 39:129-170. Hospital, Ethiopia. Trop Geogr Med. 7. Burgdorfer W. The enlarging 1993;45:66. spectrum of tick-borne spirocheteoses: R R Parker Memorial Address. Rev Infect Dis. 1986;8:932-940. | www.wildlifemanagementnews.com | 33 |
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