DropTine49 Posted September 12, 2011 Report Share Posted September 12, 2011 I am doing an undergraduate research project for school on how white tail deer feeding patterns are effected by the moon on a certain piece of property (This is a piece of property that is not hunted, but the surrounding areas will probably be hunted heavily). I have established a food source, am getting good pictures of deer, and plan to run a camera on the feeder from september 15 (our archery opener) to january 1(gun closer). I plan to document when the moon is directly overhead, under foot, and the phase that the moon is in and when the deer feed according to these times. I also plan to keep up with the high and low temperature for each day as well as the cloud cover to see if it has any impact on how the deer react to the moon. I am wandering if anyone who has taken pictures of deer in comparison to the moon has any suggestions or reccomendations to other stuff that I should be looking for or documenting during the study? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
92xj Posted September 12, 2011 Report Share Posted September 12, 2011 Temperature. I believe the air temp has way more to do with deer feeding and movement than anything else out there, besides hunting pressure. I also think studying land that is surrounded by heavily hunted land is going to flaw your conclusions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DropTine49 Posted September 12, 2011 Author Report Share Posted September 12, 2011 Temperature. I believe the air temp has way more to do with deer feeding and movement than anything else out there, besides hunting pressure. I also think studying land that is surrounded by heavily hunted land is going to flaw your conclusions. I also believe that the hunting pressure will definitely have an effect, and is the biggest reason that I decided to run the study from opening day, to the last day to see if hunting had an effect, how long would it take before the deer changed their pattern. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbeck Posted September 12, 2011 Report Share Posted September 12, 2011 sound like an interesting study, I hope we get to see the results. Good luck, should be cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhino Posted September 12, 2011 Report Share Posted September 12, 2011 I agree with Ben with recording the temperature but you probably should consider documenting every detail of the weather conditions. If it's a light rain note it...heavy rain note that...snowfall note it. Everything you can think of from temperature to rising or falling barometric pressure. When all that's done check your data from the moon phase angle you're researching then from the weather condition angle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1402731 Posted September 13, 2011 Report Share Posted September 13, 2011 I have been feeding deer in front of my picture window for 10 years wind makes a huge difference. A side affect of your feeding is you are changing the normal patterns of deer and neighors will skitter them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1402731 Posted September 13, 2011 Report Share Posted September 13, 2011 One more thing if you have wolves there not coyotes wolves they will learn to hunt your feed site I had a hurd of 67 drop to 12 in a week major stink in spring berry few were eaten at all just killed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbHunterNY Posted September 13, 2011 Report Share Posted September 13, 2011 I haven't limited input here, because I mostly hunt in NY and we can't bait here. However, what I have figured out elsewhere is as follows.... I agree with Ben with recording the temperature but you probably should consider documenting every detail of the weather conditions. If it's a light rain note it...heavy rain note that...snowfall note it. Everything you can think of from temperature to rising or falling barometric pressure. When all that's done check your data from the moon phase angle you're researching then from the weather condition angle. I agree. I have been feeding deer in front of my picture window for 10 years wind makes a huge difference.... Wind makes a huge difference I think. It's just more noticeable when hunting at home in NY than say out near OK, due to varying average wind speeds. One more thing if you have wolves there not coyotes wolves they will learn to hunt your feed site I had a hurd of 67 drop to 12 in a week major stink in spring berry few were eaten at all just killed i wouldn't ignore coyotes too much. i've seen a pack of coyotes in daylight come in to a pile of corn that has gotten lots of deer activity, sniff around it, scatter, and hunker down in the bushes surrounding it. i rarely see coyotes just hangin' around and not on a mission, so you know what their intentions were. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texan_Til_I_Die Posted September 13, 2011 Report Share Posted September 13, 2011 Availability of natural browse will have a huge impact. Example - I have 5 free choice protein feeders (which don't get hunted) and 16 timed corn feeders on 7000 acres. The rancher also plants 600 acres of winter wheat every year. On the years when there's rain in the fall, almost all of the deer will pile into the wheat fields. Activity around the feeders, even the protein feeders, will drop dramatically. In areas that have oaks with plentiful acorn crops, you'll see the same thing when the acorns drop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tominator Posted September 13, 2011 Report Share Posted September 13, 2011 I personally think you're going to have a tough time proving anything with whitetails, eating patterns as it correlates to the moon. Way too many variables IMHO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stinger-Hunter Posted September 14, 2011 Report Share Posted September 14, 2011 All great information on here so far... My only issue with the setup is that there is only one camera. I'm sure there are budgetary restrictions but your data will be just fine for your paper. Nothing will ever satisfy a hunter unless you find something that works 90% of the time. It is true that the information will be skewed because of the surrounding area being hunted. As soon as hunters enter the woods, especially with guns - that data will become majorly skewed. My prediction is that within a week of bowhunting season, you'll see more images - and the Sunday after opening gun season, it will spike for 2 or 3 weeks. After that you'll get a lot more nighttime shots - and then not until December will the day shots increase. Barometer dropping will spike the daytime shots and any time the temperature drops below 50, you'll get a spike. There's probably about 50-100 folks on here that can write your paper for you - then you just plug in the graphs and charts. LOL. Just kidding. I'm looking forward to the feedback. Lou Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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