“I know of many folks in the eastern half of the U.S experienced the same thing. “We saw exactly the same thing on our north-central Pennsylvania farm,” said biologist Kip Adams with the National Deer Association. Was this just me, or were other hunters experiencing the same? On all the lands I hunted, human pressure, which can turn bucks nocturnal overnight, was light to nonexistent. Everywhere I went, from Virginia to Canada to Indiana, bucks 3 years of age and older showed up on trail camera at night but moved little and randomly in daylight hours. Check them out on our online shop today.I’ve been both awed and frustrated by the nocturnal tendencies of mature bucks for years, but last season was ridiculous. ScopeShield will keep your scopes safe and add years of life to them. Regardless of when you choose to go hunting, make sure you head out into the woods prepared. The lack of scientific support for the theories discussed above doesn’t mean there isn’t some truth to them. However, it may be fun to take notes about your own hunting experiences along with the moon phase and position. It may be a better bet to base your hunting strategies around factors that are known to play a larger influence in deer movement.
Should The Moon Phase Affect Your Hunting StrategyĪre deer nocturnal or does the moon phase really play a role in their activity? The moon’s influence on deer activity seems subtle at most.
Even with this scientific support, the effects reported were still quite subtle.
Are deer nocturnal full#
One trail-camera study found that daytime activity seemed to decline during the full moon and that during the new moon, there was the greatest amount of feeding. Deer Movement During The Full Moon and New MoonĪnother theory proposes that during a full moon, deer are more likely to be active at night and less active during the day. While some hunters like Hays believe moon position can play into deer movement, there is currently no scientific evidence backing this.
Are deer nocturnal professional#
Some hunters believe that deer movement increases during these two times.Īdam Hays, a professional hunter, employs this theory in his hunting strategies and uses this Moon Guide to figure out when those peaks are. These periods occur once a day and are called the major and minor peaks. One theory is that deer movement increases when the moon is directly overhead or underfoot. However, many hunters, drawing on their personal experience, claim that the moon can have a noticeable effect on deer activity. Studies have revealed mixed results, and to this day, there is no conclusive evidence showing that the moon phase or position impacts deer movement. Scientists have conducted studies across the country, and hunting pros have offered their input on this matter. How the moon influences deer movement is an ongoing question in the whitetail hunting community. How Moon Phase and Position Impacts Deer Movement To minimize their risk of being spotted by a predator, they forage quickly and finish eating and digesting their food when they return to their bedding area. Deer typically feed twice a day, once earlier in the day and once later in the day. The primary reason deer move is to get food. Minimizing their risk of predatory attacks is another reason they are most active during the day and primarily not nocturnal animals. And while they can see at night, other predators, such as coyotes, can too. Some deer are indeed active at night, but this tends to be a smaller subsection of the population.ĭeer are largely crepuscular creatures, meaning they are most active in the hours before the sun sets and the hours just as the sun comes up in the morning. When starting to think about whether the moon phase affects deer movement, we’ll consider whether deer are nocturnal animals. We’ll look and see if there’s a scientific basis for the claims that the moon impacts deer activity. Are deer nocturnal, and do their patterns change based on the moon? The moon’s influence on deer movement is an ongoing debate in the hunting world.
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