Robin,

I was taught that Queen Isabella funded Columbus’ voyage to determine if the world was round. She did this because she believed the world was flat and Hades started at the horizon. Columbus was willing to gamble his life that the world is round and no harm would happen when he reached the horizon. Most deer tend to be like Queen Isabella. They are very hesitant to leave their home range for any reason. The exception is primarily yearling bucks. Most of us probably remember being in the equivalent life stage as a yearling buck – no fear, without mom for first time, and yearlwanting to roam. However, the other sex/age classes of a deer herd seem to fear the unknown. Fellow biologist Dr. Harry Jacobson and his grad students did a study years ago on this subject.

Briefly, these researchers placed long-life radio collars on deer in a portion of National Forest in Mississippi where browse for deer was very scarce. They monitored the collared deer for a year to establish their maximum home range boundaries. During year 2, they established some food plots just outside these boundaries. No collared deer made one visit to those lush plots even though they were living where little food was available. The third year new plots were created on the edge of the collared deer’s known home range and they rapidly found and utilized the plots!

Today the high was 14° at The Proving Grounds (where I live). I observed several deer in my soybean and wheat plots this morning while checking traps. Later, I saw some deer about three miles away trying to find a morsel of food in an overgrazed cow pasture. If those deer believed like Columbus, they’d have probably found the standing beans at The Proving Grounds.  However, they were more like Queen Isabella — standing on the shore thinking death awaited them at the horizon. Many studies have confirmed that most deer make the Queen Isabella choice, but there are a few that share Columbus’ willingness to adventure.

Growing Deer together,

Grant