Pumba: Yet Another “Inferior” Buck That Wasn’t

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Can you name a fellow hunter who says that bucks with weird antlers should be “culled” for the benefit of the herd because they’re somehow “inferior”? Way too many of us can, so we should make sure our cull-happy friends get a good look at bucks like Pumba. Tom Mitchell, a QDMA member from Missouri, …

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3 Ways Bucks Win the Rut

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Do you believe the list of attributes a buck must possess to be a successful breeder is long or short? Does it change depending on where you are in the whitetail’s range? Much research has gone into this topic, and we now have some definitive answers on what leads to specific bucks winning the right …

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Do Mild Winters Mean Smaller Antlers?

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Whitetail antler growth is driven by photoperiod and regulated by hormones. In general, antlers begin growing in spring, grow through late summer, shed velvet around early September, fall off in winter, and start growing again a couple of months later. Most bucks cast their antlers in January to February and start new ones in March …

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Yearling-Buck Dispersal: How Far, How Fast, How Many?

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Each fall, many yearling bucks will strike out from the range where they were born, mostly in a straight line, onto ground they have never seen before. Mama is not coming with them, and they will in all likelihood never see her again or any other familiar or closely related deer. They don’t know where …

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A Look Inside Piebald Deer

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Missy Runyan, a wildlife rehabilitator in Hunter, New York, responded to a call about a fawn in distress on May 24 of this year and found an almost completely white, piebald fawn with severe birth defects. Due to significant internal problems, the fawn did not live long, but Missy had it x-rayed to get an …

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