Deer Senses

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Deer Senses

• Original Power Point Created by
• Andy Harrison

Modified by the GA Agriculture Education
Curriculum Office July 2002
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Considerations

• Preyed upon from air and ground
• Must communicate with each other by means other
  than visual displays
• Has ability to see in low light
• Same senses as man hearing , sight, smell,
  taste, touch (touch not as important)

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Sound

• Ears can rotate independently in all directions
• Ears more sensitive than humans
• -Upper range 30,000 cycles
• -Human 20,000 cycles
• -Sensitive to high pitch noise

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Sound

• Two types of sound
• - Everyday sounds birds, leaves, falling tree
  limbs
• - Sounds indicating danger unusual footsteps,
  brushing against vegetation

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Sound

• Deer can sense other deers movements at great
  distances
• Deer do not move frequently on windy days
• Deer make little noise when they walk

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Sight

• Crepuscular move about in low light
  conditions
• Even during the day they move in shaded areas
• Have limited color vision
• -Rods and Cones
• Rods see light and dark signals
• Cones see subtle colors

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Sight

• Have more rods than cones
• Deer DO note need to see colors
• Can see upper and lower end of color whereas
  humans are tri-chromatic see red, blue, and
  green wavelengths
• Deer have dichromatic vision- they are missing
  green

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Sight

• Wavelengths - yellow, brown, orange and red
  are not perceived well
• -These colors are perceived as shades of yellow
• Humans can move about during the day in bright
  light because of tri-chromatic vision

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Sight

• The human eyes screen out UV
• Deer use UV to see better in low- light
  environments
• Tapetum lucidum highly reflective membrane
  behind retina
• -It essentially reprocesses light for the rods
  and cones, allowing them another chance to be
  stimulated

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Sight

• Deer eye is larger than a humans
• Pupil is capable of opening wider than a
  humans pupil
• UV filter in not present as in humans
• More rods than man ratio of rods to cones
  greater

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Sight

• Very good at picking up movement
• Poor at distinguishing detail
• Excellent in picking up UV reflections
• Camouflage
• -Use muted colors such as gray, brown, and green
• -Viewed by deer as slightly different yellows

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Sight

• Things you can do to remain undetected
• -Anticipate deer movement
• -Sit with light to your back
• -Never sit on top of hill

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Smell

• More sophisticated than humans
• In the forest, because of low sight and low
  light, smell is important

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Smell

• Four basic glands in deer body to produce
  chemicals
• -Tarsal gland inside hock
• -Interdigital gland
• -Metatarsal gland
• -Preorbital gland

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Glands

• Tarsal located on inside of hock
• -Strong smell in rutting bucks and does
• -When encountered, deer urinate on glands because
  the long hairs provide an excellent evaporative
  surface for the scent
• Interdigital located between toes
• -Serves as a trail marker
• -May allow deer to determine direction of travel

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Glands

• Metatarsal located on outside of lower leg
• -No real function in whitetails
• -In mule deer and black tail it serves an alarm
  function

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Frontal Gland

• Located on forehead
• Most likely a dispersal gland
• Will sometimes rub this area on tarsal gland
• Will rub this area on scrapes

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Scents

• Masking - overrides human scent with other
  scents common to deer
• Neutralizing attempt to destroy odor

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Scents

• Communication scents
• Scents that mask human odors
• Scents that neutralize human odors

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Scents

• Communication Scents
• -Designed to smell like a receptive doe or buck
• -Some people keep frozen tarsal glands

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Taste

• Can use taste interchangeably with smell
• Bucks lick rubs