What time of day does a deer get up???

[T.R. Michels]

Like most other animals, deer have a resting period, and a time to travel and eat. After its long resting period, what part of the day does a deer generally get up to travel and feed????

And what tells it that it is time for that???

Have fun with this one.  party2.gif

The answer could be educational.  ::

God bless,

T.R.

[GirlGuide]

My "uneducated" guess would be is that they get up at dawn and then again at dusk...I suppose that it does change when the weather is not cooperating with them though....hhhmmm...my guess seems to simple...I'm sure there is way more to this than I actually know.  I will be interested to see your answer.  gg

[Mayfly]

I'm guess that all deer are different. Some blow through life with the wind, coming and going whenever they feel the need, depending on their comfort level in their area. I would say that most deer are active 5 times in a 24 hours period. Their longest resting period is during the daylight hours and they move at 12am, 3am, 5am, 12pm, 6pm, and 10pm. They are most active between 6pm - 5am. once the sun comes up they head to their bedding holes to sleep and around noon they mill around and grab a bite but generally don't go too far. Then about 5-6pm they start moving toward their evening feeding area, eat till after dark and then play and relax, move to the next area or stay in the same spot and eat some more around 10pm, then they spend the rest of the night socializing and eating and laying around. Their evening feed is like their breakfast and their noon feed is liek a midnight snack. Afternoon to them is after 10pm and their evening (social time/night life) is from 12 am until they go to bed. Some deer are party animals and may stay out till 9am!!! Some deer are conservative and like to be in bed by 6am. Shall I go on.......

[Grute Man]

10 am.   I know that because Im kinda on a schedule and I'll get down to go take care of business and come back to find that some deer took care of business under my stand.  That's happened to me more than once.  I wonder if its like a dog marking its territory.

[beans]

photo periodism is what makes deer start the rut and know when to sleep and when to travel :rock:

[Grute Man]

What makes em decide to poop under my stand ONLY when Im gone & probably doing the same thing??   ::hittingself::

Hey, maybe that photo periodism is whats getting to me too!?!?!?!   

[thunderpout]

When they want to eat, have to relieve themselves or pro-create I suppose....and different things will influence when they do those things, like: amount of daylite/moonlite, weather patterns and hunting pressure......is this a trick question?  Why do I feel like I'm missing something here? :detective: :ROTFLMAO:    -thunderpout 8)

[tripnchip]

 This is a hard one as I have seen them feeding in feilds most any time of the day but mostly late aftenoon into the pre. midnight hrs. Being browsers though they do get up and feed around the bedding area inbetween.

[Super Star!]

It has to do with many things the moon phase and the barometric pressure. That is why some days you will see deer every where during the day and chances are a front is moving in and it will be storming in the eve.

Deer will wonder around the woods lying down and getting up walking 50 feet and laying down some will do this all day long. If you have ever came upon a deer lying down ( bow hunters I am sure you have all had a deer come in and take a load off) you can tell if they are bedded down for the day by if there eyes are closed. If they are open they either heard you coming or are just taking a load off.

Some may say how would you know all that well here is were I learned it. I went on a guided whitetail hunt in Saskatchewan that was supposed to be a sit in a stand and freeze your butt off hunt. While sitting in the stand with my guide I was picking his brain about whitetails and there movement and he explained all that to me and then he showed me that he knew what he was talking about. Are hunt went from a sitting to a spot and stalk hunt, were I seen both deer laying down taking a load off and ones sleeping. 

 As always you can read 500 different things about there movement, Who knows what is right 

[T.R. Michels]

Remember: the question was "What time of day does a deer get up?"

Here is what every research study I've read, and my own 10 years of research, has found. And realize research into this subject has been going on for over 30 years, so we do have really reliable answers.


Deer sleep/rest during much of the day, in their daytime core areas. They get up in the late afternoon / evening to feed. They eat for a couple of hours, then often bed down in or near the nighttime food source. They often get up to feed, urinate, defecate and stretch within an hour or so of midnight, then they lay down again, often not far from where they first got up. About an hour or so before sunrise they get up to feed for a couple of hours, and then they head back to their daytime core areas, where the spend most of the day. They may again get up around noon to stretch, urinate, defecate and feed, and then lay down again, often near where they first got up. 

This type of daily movement activity is called "crepuscular" meaning that deer are most active at dusk and dawn. The opposite of most of us.

Remember that  - deer get up in the evening - so when you see them headed in one direction before sunset - it means they more than likley came from their daytime core area, which is where they spend the most continuous amount of time during a 24 hour day. Which is why you should try to "pattern" a deer, to find its daytime core area, so you can hunt near it - because that is where you are most likely to see a particular deer on a regular basis.

When you see deer in the morning, leaving a food source, they are probably headed back to their daytime core area.

To see a particular deer on a regular basis, you need to get between its daytime core area and a food source - in the evening; or get between a nightime food source and the deer's daytime core area - in the morning.

I hope that helps some of you be more successful - on a specific trophy class buck.

God bless and good hunting,

T.R.