I got to thinking about this again while reading another thread this evening.
A deer's memory.
I have heard years ago that deer think more in a short term memory kind of way and only use their long term memory for the essentials of life such as food, water, travel routes, and safe zones. Something to do with the wiring of the brain to aid in the flight for life response. Made sense to me at the time as there are plenty of times I have seen deer and many other pray animals run from the slightest things only to stop a short distance and look back to try and figure out what the heck they was running from to begin with. I have also seen deer hear a sound like a snapping twig that got their attention and as long as the sound stopped immediately the deer would go right back to what they was doing almost acting as if they forgot about the sound altogether. Wait just a few minutes and you was good to move again.
Long term memory, I would also like to add that some deer have learned to look up and stored that as well. I shot a doe 3 years ago and her fawn watched her mom die in the bean field that evening. The fawn ran a little distance back to the treeline and I didn't know it at the time as I was more focused on the mother but she watched me climb down out of that tree. She also stood there as I walked to her mother and proceeded to the tagging, field dressing, and dragging her out. That young doe learned at an early age to look up into trees and she continues to do this very well to this day. I don't care where you setup in those woods she will pick you off every flippin time. She got me 2 years ago and nailed Dante 2x last year in 2 different setups. It has gotten to the point now that it is going to take a tag team effort of Dante and myself to take her out just so she can't tech anymore of her offspring to do the same.
Just something I got to thinking about again this evening and thought I would toss it out there and see what you guys thought and have seen over your time in the outdoors.
A deer's memory.
I have heard years ago that deer think more in a short term memory kind of way and only use their long term memory for the essentials of life such as food, water, travel routes, and safe zones. Something to do with the wiring of the brain to aid in the flight for life response. Made sense to me at the time as there are plenty of times I have seen deer and many other pray animals run from the slightest things only to stop a short distance and look back to try and figure out what the heck they was running from to begin with. I have also seen deer hear a sound like a snapping twig that got their attention and as long as the sound stopped immediately the deer would go right back to what they was doing almost acting as if they forgot about the sound altogether. Wait just a few minutes and you was good to move again.
Long term memory, I would also like to add that some deer have learned to look up and stored that as well. I shot a doe 3 years ago and her fawn watched her mom die in the bean field that evening. The fawn ran a little distance back to the treeline and I didn't know it at the time as I was more focused on the mother but she watched me climb down out of that tree. She also stood there as I walked to her mother and proceeded to the tagging, field dressing, and dragging her out. That young doe learned at an early age to look up into trees and she continues to do this very well to this day. I don't care where you setup in those woods she will pick you off every flippin time. She got me 2 years ago and nailed Dante 2x last year in 2 different setups. It has gotten to the point now that it is going to take a tag team effort of Dante and myself to take her out just so she can't tech anymore of her offspring to do the same.
Just something I got to thinking about again this evening and thought I would toss it out there and see what you guys thought and have seen over your time in the outdoors.