Moon Phases for Deer Hunting in Kentucky
The moon's effect on behavior, both animal and human, is a ubiquitous concept which many hunters would like to master as they stalk big buck deer. Bob Humphery of Bow Hunting Magazine quips that some hunters swear to the moon while others swear at it.
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Kentucky Deer Movement Patterns
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Due to unpredictable weather and a varied terrain, deer move in often erratic patterns across the bluegrass. Many hunters believe the lunar cycle mysteriously correlates to a female deer's estrous cycle. According to Bow Hunting Magazine, the lunar cycle is 29.5 days, and the whitetail estrous cycle is 28 to 29 days. Kentucky hunters use this cycle as a sort-of constant to predict when bucks are roving the land looking for a mate.
Kentucky's Rutting Moon
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Bow Hunting Magazine reports that some hunters follow what's called the rutting moon. The rut is when deer mate, and therefore move around the most. Wildlife biologist Charles Alshemier supports following the rutting moon; many Kentucky hunters follow his lead because it synchronizes a visible thing like the moon with a biological imperative. However, Petersen's Hunting magazine cites Gerry Levigne, a deer biologist whose work confirms that a deer population's rut occurs with minimal variation at the same time each year. This makes the moon irrelevant to tracking Kentucky deer.
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Moon Cycles or Patterns of Light?
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Because of climate and geographic variation, the rut period in Kentucky is both longer and hard to predict; however, a paper presented to the 2009 Southeast Deer Study Group suggests that patterns of light--nothing involving the moon--controls deer mating times and therefore deer movement...even in Kentucky.
Despite this, several hunters and deer trackers maintain that the peak of a deer population's rut period can be traced by the movement of the moon.
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References
- Photo Credit whitetail deer buck image by Bruce MacQueen from Fotolia.com
