Hi Everyone, just a reminder that my Nature Smart column runs several months behind current issues.

I am busy working on four new children’s books and my new book on Bears will be coming out this April. Stay tuned and I will announce when they come out. Meanwhile enjoy the eColumn.

In my favorite forest the leaves have turned a multitude of autumn colors. Bright yellows and reds along with dull browns and tans. This is the time of year that I love to be in the woods. But it’s not the leaves that brings me out morning after morning to the woods. It is the White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) that draws me out. Capturing images of the rut is what I am looking for.

The rut is defined as the mating season of any ruminant animal such as the deer, elk or moose. The rut is triggered by the amount of available daylight, called the photo-period. The amount of daylight is perceived through the animals eyes and sent to the brain. The brain triggers hormones to be released into the animal’s body and the deer reacts in semi-predictable ways. The rut can last for up to 2 months but usually it’s only 6 weeks or so. Many still mistakenly believe that the rut is triggered by cold weather but all you need to do is look to southern climates where it doesn’t get cold to prove this is not true.

During the rut the male White-tailed Deer goes through a series of rituals such as rubbing their antlers on trees or shrubs in order to lay down a scent and to polish up their antlers. They also will trash about in thick shrubs rubbing their antlers all over the twigs and branches. Often tall grass gets torn up and the stems of the grass hangs from their antlers like trophies after a fight.

Male white-tails, called bucks, will also fight or spare with each other. They do both mock fighting and serious fighting. The mock fighting occurs early in the season and is often between two bucks of unequal size and status. They are often just practicing for the serious battles to come later in the season. Later the fights are between equally matched bucks and can be fought to the death or at least serious injury.

Males will also scrape the ground with their front hooves, clearing the ground of any leaf liter. Often they will squat and pee on the bare earth. Usually above the scrape will be a relatively low hanging twig in which he reaches up and licks and rubs. This “licking stick” is essential to the scrape because it is also a place where the buck deposits a scent. I do find scrapes without licking sticks but in the area where I hang out they nearly all have a licking stick.

During the rut the bucks are much less cautious and they do things they would not normally do such as walk out in front of cars without looking and allow photographers such as myself to get within close proximity. Much of a bucks day is spent walking around from place to place catching the scent of the females, checking for their readiness to breed. They can put on many miles each day.

It is completely not true that the bucks will stop eating during the rut. I spend many hours each day following around large breeding bucks and they stop and eat all the time. Yes, they feed less than non-rutting and they will lose weight during the process but they are eating and drinking during the rut.

Unlike their larger cousin the Elk, which gathers up harems of females that he guards until the female is receptive, the White-tailed bucks wonder around the woods in search of each females who is in breeding condition. After breeding he is off in search of another female. The white-tailed doe is in estrus for up to 72 hours and may come into breeding condition up to seven times if she doesn’t mate.

Watching the male white-tails go through these rituals is a never ending source of information for me. I love documenting the rich behavior of the White-tailed Deer at this time of year. The more I watch the more I learn. Until next time…

Stan Tekiela is an author / naturalist and wildlife photographer who travels the US to study and photograph wildlife. He can be followed on Facebook.com and Twitter.com or visit him at www.naturesmart.com.