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All behavior associated with mating
- However, “rut” includes all behavior associated with mating. It starts with scraping to leave a scent signal and perhaps attract a mate, which is sometimes referred to as pre-rut. It spans the chasing phase, when bucks are starting to approach and harass does that may still not be ready, and culminates with breeding.
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- Josh Honeycutt
- The Pre-Rut. Late October to Early November. As fall progresses and dulling green leaves give way to brighter colors, relaxed whitetails turn into testosterone-driven knuckleheads.
- The Early Rut. Mid-November. Things get more serious as the second full week of November nears. The first wave of does—albeit a small one—are entering estrus now, and deer respond accordingly.
- The Peak Rut. Second and third week of November. The Midwestern rut is in full force. The bulk of does are courted during this 10-day window. This can actually make it more difficult to see a mature buck.
- The Late Rut. Final week of November. Most does are finished with love and unreceptive now. Instead, they're back with their fawns and shunning any and all advances from male counterparts.
- Where Deer Live
- Age Class
- Rut Phases
There’s a couple terms and definitions about where deer live that are worth understanding correctly. One is home range. Most hunters are familiar with it, but do you really know what it means? Biologists define a whitetail's home range as the geographic area within which it spends 90 percent of its time over the course of a year. Ask most any knowl...
Age is another area where confusion sometimes occurs. Everyone knows what fawns are, but as they grow older and bigger and enter their first fall hunting season, they’re sometimes referred to as yearlings. A yearling is a deer that’s at least one year old, meaning it would be entering its second hunting season. If it’s a buck, it will probably spor...
Perhaps the greatest area of misinformation about whitetails involves so called phases of the rut: seeking, chasing, breeding, etc. They do occur, but not as discreetly as we would like to believe. It’s human nature to try and label and categorize things into distinct and separate categories, but nature itself doesn’t work that way. The seeking pha...
Oct 8, 2021 · The deer rut is a period of time when the whitetail deer are mating. Deer rut typically occurs in November and can extend into early December. During deer rut, male whitetail deer are in their most aggressive state. They will fight to compete for mates or try to find new territory to roam.
- Transition from Velvet to Hard Antler, Start of the Pre-Rut. The shedding of antlers and impending regrowth is an annual occurrence. Velvet antlers are highly vascular and grow rapidly to reach full potential by the end of August, which aligns with the earliest hunting seasons.
- Seeking Phase of the Pre-Rut. By more contemporary description, the pre-rut heats up and younger bucks in particular start to move more near the end of October as both bucks and does visit and urinate in scrapes.
- Chasing Phase, Still Pre-Rut. Sometimes difficult to differentiate, this pre-breeding period occurs immediately after the seeking phase and just prior to actual breeding.
- The Estrus, Peak Deer Rut. The breeding phase, or estrus period, is viewed as the peak of the rut. This is when buck movement breaks wide open. It’s when does go into estrus and are receptive to the breeding advances of eager bucks.
Dec 29, 2023 · Rutting is the term ascribed to the breeding season for the deer species. Unlike human beings, who can produce young regardless of the calendar month, deer need to time their baby-making just...
Apr 20, 2021 · Every fall whitetail deer go through a 1- to 3-month-long breeding season that we call the rut, and in that time a mature doe will become sexually receptive for only a short period of 1 to 2 days.
The phenomenon known as "the rut" is the period when deer breed. People often ask biologists when the rut is going to occur. It's a question biologists commonly hear in the fall.
