deer research

3 Promising New Ways to Detect CWD, Dead Deer Not Required

Mar 15, 2023 Lindsay Thomas Jr.

Good news is scarce in the fight against chronic wasting disease, so I’m pleased that I have some to share. A series of new tools could give us the ability to detect CWD in deer…

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8 Ways Deer Are the Opposite of What Many Hunters Think

Mar 8, 2023 Lindsay Thomas Jr.

Using your common sense isn’t always a good method for understanding deer behavior and biology. It’s easy to believe deer move more on a full moon night because it makes common sense: They must be…

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14 Stats From New Deer Research

Dec 7, 2022 Lindsay Thomas Jr.

For the past two years, NDA was proud to voluntarily coordinate and host the largest national gathering of deer researchers, the Southeast Deer Study Group meeting, to ensure its continuation despite the pandemic. It’s fortunate…

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Do Whitetail Bucks Ever Mate With Their Own Doe Offspring?

Nov 16, 2022 Lindsay Thomas Jr.

The whitetail rut is a frenzied scramble. Literally, that’s the biological term for the whitetail breeding strategy – “scramble competition” – because a buck’s success at breeding does is determined mostly by his ability to…

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What We Learned From a Buck With No Eyes

Oct 12, 2022 Lindsay Thomas Jr.

Deer scientists have known for decades about the powerful influence of light on deer behavior and physical characteristics like antler growth. Early theories about latitude affecting things like rut timing were close – but incorrect….

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How to Hunt Food Plots: Maybe Don’t

Sep 21, 2022 Lindsay Thomas Jr.

You worked hard to prepare that fall food plot, from filling the first soil-sample baggie to the final roll of the cultipacker, leaking drops of sweat onto the Earth the whole way. Now a green…

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To Hear More Gobblers, Stop the Squeal

Aug 24, 2022 Lindsay Thomas Jr.

If there are feral hogs in the woods you hunt, there may not be as many wild turkeys as there could be. Hogs have previously been named among many suspects for causing the recent national decline…

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Buck Personalities: Sedentary vs. Mobile Bucks with Luke Resop of the Mississippi State University Deer Lab

Jun 22, 2022 NDA Staff

In this week’s episode of the Deer Season 365 Podcast, we’re talking with Luke Resop, of the Mississippi State University Deer Lab, about his recent deer research project. Luke looked at data from a GPS…

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The Mysterious Adventure of an Exceptional Buck

Nov 3, 2021 Lindsay Thomas Jr.

it’s difficult to trap a good deer scientist. They leave themselves room to maneuver when you ask them for certainty about deer behavior, a sort of scientific CYA. Good deer scientists say “usually” instead of…

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To Intercept Bucks in Daylight, Take Lessons From GPS-Collar Research

Oct 27, 2021 Dylan Stewart and Dr. Will Gulsby

it’s fairly common knowledge that hunting near roads or hunting the same stand repeatedly is unlikely to lead to hunting success, especially when targeting mature bucks. But this begs the question, “Why?” The obvious answer…

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