Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Serious Deer Talk Forum Serious Question

Is a 5yo+ whitetail buck smarter than a 5yo+ doe? Or vice versa. (During the rut not included)

If so why?
If not why not?

I have my own opinion I just want to hear y’all’s.

I’ve killed a bunch more 5yo does than 5yo bucks. Seen a lot more too. My vote is buck smarter

5+ year old bucks. I've seen fewer 5+ older bucks in daylight than I have 5+ older does.

Genuine question of my own....does seeing more 5+ does in daylight mean the bucks are actually smarter....or they just don't walk around in daylight as much?

Absolutely not. There’s more 5+ year old does in the population on most properties simply as a result of harvest strategies by hunters. VERY few bucks live to be 5+ due to hunting related and natural mortality. 5 year old bucks are no harder to kill than 5 year old does. They just simply don’t exist in a lot of places.

Winner winner chicken dinner.

I don’t know if you want to call it smarter or more wary or what but there is some difference in them. I’ve got old does that will walk out into my fields during the daylight with no issues….but those old bucks won’t….What’s even more interesting is that I’ve sat out here and watched a lot of deer activity in a clover plot I have that’s lit of by a street light. Those old bucks don’t even want to come out of the cover into the street light they’re so wary. During the rut when young bucks come through and start messing with the does the old bucks will start snort wheezing and pitching a fit breaking dog fennel bushes and saplings….but they don’t want to come out of that cover into that light for chit. These are probably 5-8 year old bucks we’re talking about.

….and no I don’t shoot anything in the street light….i don’t care about killing them that much anymore….it’s just fun to watch.

I can’t answer the original question with certainty, but my years of bow hunting have proved to me that the hardest deer to kill in January for us with a bow is a mature doe. The bucks are distracted with thoughts of other things, so if you limit your question to just the rut, then certainly the doe is more wary. The rest of the season, for whatever innate reason, the buck certainly would appear to be more wary.

Also, I think there is the maternal instinct factor also. A mature doe tends to be leading a group, many if not all are her family. I think for that reason, they are extra cautious. I truly believe the motherhood instinct is strong not only in humans but in the animal world also.

They're the same in my opinion. Most of the does we kill are similar to the bucks, young ones.

This has been my experience exactly, I've even noticed a similar street light situation with the same results. I dont know if it's being more wary or smarter either. Smarter is the question, but I dont know. I have to agree with Matt about the 5 year old bucks just not existing in many places. People shoot everything that moves these days, especially on public land.

I would say it's possible an old buck and old doe can be of the same intelligence l, but behave differently, just like human men and women (i.e. bucks more wary than does or visa versa). That's why I dont know if it's being smarter or more wary or just having different characteristics due to their sex.

Heres a story for you that's relevant. I watched a documentary about a man who dedicated a large part of his life to study and live amongst a mule deer herd. He moved to a cabin out in the middle of nowhere where this herd lived most of the year. They had a different winter range, but he was around them most of the year. He always tried to have contact with them every day that he could no matter what. The heard consisted of all ages of deer, both bucks and does. As the months went by, they began to let him get closer and closer.

After over 2 years, the matriarch/oldest doe, came up to him and let him pet her. After that very moment, the other does, which were younger would let him pet them, and they accepted him into the herd. They eventually would even lead him to their fawns right after they were born.

Through all that, not once did I see him ever get to touch a buck. They always kept their distance. So did the bucks keep their distance because they were smarter than the does? Or because they were more wary or cautious by nature? The oldest doe was able to figure out that he wasnt a threat, so does that make her smarter than the old bucks? I tend to believe old does and old bucks behave differently, because it's their nature (like the old the scorpion and frog tale).

Also one thing to consider is that deer are individuals like humans, and some 5 or old bucks may be smarter or more wary than other 5 year old bucks, same with does. That said, you could have a buck smarter than a equal age doe or a doe smarter than a equal age buck.

The name of the documentary is "touching the wild" and was aired by PBS. You may be able to find it on youtube. It's a good watch.

If anyone would know it's Mbrock. He said it better than I could. You can't kill what isn't on your property.

what Matt said

I would think smarter in different ways. Does are raising babies and finding food to feed the herd as well as trying to stay alive. A buck has a target on his back from the time he has 3inch spikes on his head. Hes just trying to stay alive. Ive always thought bucks were more scared than smart. Seems like to me they stay in a mode similar to a frightened juvenile horse, if youve ever been around one of those. That is except when theyre in rut.

Lota truth here, there's way fewer 5YO and older bucks. That aside , I'd say the buck MAY be a little harder to kill only because I think those older bucks are like grumpy old men and are more reclusive than does. Even if there's a difference , don't know how you'd prove it.

Good point , if a buck and a doe are on the same property where does are sacred but every buck is far game. If a buck lives to 5 he's probably been in bachelor groups where their buddies were shot , he becomes very reclusive and only moves at night , but the older does move freely when and where they want . I've hunted in rugged terra for nearly 50 years , I can say the older bucks will bed in much more secluded locations than a doe group.

Your example of the juvenile horse makes me think of turkeys, many will say how smart the wild turkey is . I've heard some of the finest turkey hunters in North Bama say they are not smart , they are just scared of everything and hyper cautious.

Now I guess the question is being smarter and harder to kill one in the same?

^^^^^^^

I think it depends.
If the does have been getting thinner pretty hard, they’ll go nocturnal and can be just as hard to get on as a buck.
If they’re protected and walking around pretty much it unmolested, they’ll seem easy.

They all come to corn eventually

Yep , but you may have to hunt in the very early , dark hours of the morning to get that 5YO buck in yer crosshairs.

Old doe they get away with more