Buck Manager | Buck Manager

Deer Hunting in Texas – A Family Tradition

It’s time—the day before the opener of Texas’ General White-tailed Deer Hunting Season! That means the trucks are packed, the trailers are loaded, the guns have been sighted-in (hopefully), the knives are sharpened, the corn used to “chick-chick” the roads is waiting at a gas station to be purchased along the way, and guys and gals and boys and girls all across the great state of Texas will be making tracks today on the way to their deer leases, public hunting lands or personal properties. It’s amazing at just how fast a year goes by now days, but another deer hunting season is upon us.

Like many hunters, I grew up with a father that hunted. He introduced me to the outdoors and taught me how to spot the dove flyways on the property where we ran cows, how to hunt squirrels, rabbits, deer and how to skin them all, including coons and nutria that we trapped, as well as anything else you could skin. Actually, furbearers brought a good price back then, and I think that really help control a lot of those mid-sized predator populations. Now that I think about it, we did see more quail and even some pheasants around still at that time. Hunting allowed me to experience nature up close, as well as spend time with family and friends. Continue reading “Deer Hunting in Texas – A Family Tradition”

Deer Management Strategies for Burned Properties

All wildlife species need food, cover, water and space to survive. White-tailed deer are no different. Most regions of Texas have been pretty thin on food and water for wildlife this year due to pitifully low amounts of rainfall, but many properties have been impacted by wildfires too, consuming dry vegetation (food and cover) and completely setting back white-tailed deer habitat. Burned lands can look bad, real bad at first. However, the benefits of fire on native habitats have been well documented.

Fires used for habitat management purposes are always prescribed fires, not wildfires. Prescribed burns differ greatly from wildfires in that planned fires can be set to accomplish specific objectives. This is not the case with wildfires, which can also destroy homes and other valuable infrastructure. But from a habitat perspective, fire is fire. The plant communities found in Texas are well-adapted to fire. But what can properties impacted by recent wildfires expect? Continue reading “Deer Management Strategies for Burned Properties”

Shoot Early This Deer Season

Providing high quality habitat and good whitetail nutrition are some of the major building blocks of a successful deer management program. Regular readers of this site know that I stress this point constantly. Although the plant communities on a property can be manipulated to provide outstanding native forage for resident deer, even good habitat can “take it on the chin” during drought years like this one. Supplemental feeding can help struggling deer big time, but filling tags early in the deer hunting season is another way to “create” food for the remaining deer.

When it comes to individual animals having more food, it never hurts to eliminate the competition. This is why it’s always, always, always important to keep deer numbers in line with the available habitat. The past 12 months have been beyond dry here in Texas. So just like the commercial beef producers have been reducing their herds, it’s almost time for the deer hunters to step up to the plate and do the same to Texas’ whitetail. Pasture management and habitat management can be one in the same. Proper herd management, whether it be cow or deer, can moderate some of the impacts of drought—to both the animals and the plants they eat. After all, it will rain again someday. You just have to make sure there is something left to grow.

Source: “It doesn’t take a biologist to understand that drought has serious impacts on the state’s nearly 4 million white-tailed deer,” said Alan Cain, deer program leader with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. “Everything from antler quality, to fawn production and overall survival will be affected by the tough range conditions this year.”

“By reducing deer numbers early on, hunters can help ensure enough groceries will be available through the winter months,” Cain said. “As with many wildlife species the very young and the very old often have much more difficult times dealing with extreme weather events.” These stress periods are a way for nature to ‘thin the herd,’ especially in areas where deer populations are already exceeding the carrying capacity of the native range. As deer become stressed they are more susceptible to infections or other disease. Drought like this can be a contributing factor towards stress.”

The Texas deer hunting season opens Saturday, October 1, for bowhunting and November 5 for the general gun season. A special youth-only weekend season is set for October 29-30. The general season runs through January 1, 2012 in North Texas and January 15, 2012 in South Texas. A late youth-only season is also in the books for January 2-15, 2012, but I highly encourage everyone to not procrastinate on deer harvest this fall.

The deer will be hungry, so expect whitetails to be much more visible than last year and hitting feeders like clockwork right from the get-go. And yes, they will be thirsty too. Water is in high demand this year so take advantage of its deer-concentrating power and shoot some animals near water sources as well. During last year’s deer hunting season, Texas hunters harvested a record 688,000 deer. Cain predicted that record could be topped this year if conditions stay the same. I think he’s right. There should be a lot of brown on the ground, and rightfully so.

Bucks That Never Shed Velvet, Antlers

Hunters are a lot like the white-tailed deer that they hunt, with each one being different from the rest of the herd. Some hunters like bucks with big, wide spreads while others want long tine lengths or bucks with mega-mass. Fortunately, not all bucks are cut from the same template. Late summer is the time of the year when whitetail bucks begin shedding antler velvet. While this is true for most bucks, what about the very small percentage of bucks that do not shed their velvet? How can this happen?

Hunter’s Story: “I heard from my taxidermist about the largest 6 point whitetail buck he had ever seen. Apparently, he was an 8 year old deer, harvested in December while still in full velvet, and the deer had been castrated, most likely by jumping a fence. The explanation goes something like this: The deer was likely injured/castrated in the summer of his 3rd or 4th year. Because the velvet dies off in the fall due to increased testosterone levels, and this bucks levels obviously did not increase, his velvet lived and the antlers continued to grow. Continue reading “Bucks That Never Shed Velvet, Antlers”

Whitetail Deer with Canine Teeth

Most hunters know that a successful white-tailed deer management program is a multifaceted endeavor. For noticeable changes to be observed in a deer population, the age, genetics and nutrition of the herd must be managed at some level. Because age is an important parameter within a deer population, aging deer on the hoof and then re-evaluating that assessment after “ground checking” based on the deer’s tooth wear is a common practice on many ranches.

After cutting a deer’s check, most hunters expect to see teeth with six teeth per side, with some amount of wear, but most never expect to see a deer with fangs in its upper mouth.

Whitetail Deer with Canine Teeth - Deer with Fangs

Canine Teeth are Rare

These “fangs” are actually canine teeth. All whitetail have lower canines, but few deer have upper canines. The harvested deer that do have them often go undetected because hunters focus on the teeth located in the bottom jaw when aging, not those positioned on top.

The upper canine teeth that are seen are usually discovered by taxidermist preparing buck deer for European (skull) mounts, not by curious hunters probing around inside an animals mouth. Common sense would make one believe that most ungulates such as white-tailed deer do not have canine teeth, but a small number of deer actually do.

Whitetail Deer with Canine Teeth

A History of Cervids with Canines

Although most whitetail do not have fangs, there are some ungulates that posses the more appropriately termed canine teeth. But why do these teeth occur at all in deer? Genetics. We have to go back many, many years to understand the relationship between the whitetail and its prehistoric ancestors.

Research suggests that the white-tailed deer evolved from deer that originated in Asia tens of millions of years ago. Several of the deer found on that continent back then had canine teeth. Some, like the Chinese Water Deer and Muntjac (oldest known deer), still do.

Adult Muntjac males have tiny antlers, but have well-pronounced canine teeth that can grow up to three inches in length. In the same manner that whitetail bucks use their antlers to intimidate and fight other bucks during the rut, the canine teeth of Asian deer have similar functions in buck competition during the breeding season. While the whitetail deer’s genetic link to its Asian ancestors has weakened over time, the gene for these vestigial canine teeth still remains.

Whitetail Deer with Fangs

Bucks with Canine Teeth?

Like the Asian deer mentioned above, only whitetail bucks typically possess these small, upper canine deer “fangs.” It’s been reported that whitetail does never grow canines, but there have in fact been documented cases of does having upper canines.

But even when these specialized teeth are not present, deer can pass on the canine gene to their offspring. By the way, whitetail deer are not the only North American cervide with canine teeth. Elk, both male and female, possess canine teeth. In fact, you can age this species based on canine tooth wear.