Bowhunters talk about it. As rifle hunters gather at deer camp, the subject will no doubt come up, as it usually does year after year. Research has been conducted across the country on this topic. Yet, to many hunters, the home range of a whitetail buck remains a bit of a mystery, so let’s look at some of the data.
From birth in the spring until about September, a newly born buck will remain with the mother as she travels within her home range of less than a square mile. The initial social groups that form after birthing are usually an adult doe, her fawns, and her yearling female offspring. Sometimes, three or four generations of related does are present in a family group, but in late May, adult does become aggressive toward their yearling offspring, temporarily severing ties with the family group and remaining alone to bear and raise their fawns. This breakup of the family group could result in a young buck moving away from the mother’s home range. If a young buck remains in the mother’s home range, it tends to group with siblings until September, when that group tends to break up as the rut approaches. As they disperse from the mother’s home range, yearling bucks travel 3 to 5 miles on average, although dispersal movements of more than 40 miles have occurred. After the breeding season in late January, bucks form loose associations of usually 2 to 4 animals and remain in bachelor groups until September, when the rut starts again.
Generally speaking, these bucks tend to remain in a home range of about one square mile. However, that area can encompass 3 to 5 square miles during the rut as their daily travel increases in search of an estrus doe. Throughout most of the year, a buck will travel from 1 to 4 miles from the core area, generally searching for food. During the rut, however, travel from the core area can reach 5 to 6 miles per day for yearling to 3-year-old bucks, with that distance being even greater for bucks over 3 years of age. The “bed-to-feed” travel pattern will vary, especially as a buck matures, and will vary even more during the rut.
Extensive research has shown that the size of a buck’s home range or core area increases as the buck matures, and the travel distance they cover increases with age as well. Food, cover, and water are the key factors in determining the size of a home range until the rut begins, and then both the core area and the daily travel distances increase dramatically. This is why, when hunting in the areas you usually frequent, you may easily see a buck you have never caught on a trail camera or observed in any previous scouting you may have done.
Hunting pressure can greatly affect the size of a buck’s home range. Bucks respond quickly to any degree of hunting pressure and will reduce their overall movement to less than their home range. They also shift their daylight movement toward heavier cover and away from open areas and often become completely nocturnal in their activities.
Many bucks, especially as they mature, tend to establish dual home ranges or core areas—one used throughout most of the year, where they focus on merely food, water, and cover, and the other usually nearby, where they dedicate their time during the rut. While these two areas were most often within a mile of each other, cases have occurred where they were up to 18 miles apart!
Being a successful whitetail hunter is often based upon your knowledge of the habits and habitat of the deer in the areas you hunt. The home range of a particular buck is only one factor, but along with preseason scouting and being able to read what scrapes and rubs during the rut are telling you will go a long way toward securing some tasty venison for the dinner table!
