Something really interesting about this area to consider is that it has been an evolving process that has been playing out over the last 50-75 years and it still is in some respects…..
The way in which these populations merged would have not be on any kind of a clean line and as hunter management started coming back into play the very manner in which different properties have shot does and which ones got shot would all cause this “transition zone” to run a little farther east to west in some areas than others…….and this interplay between the two would most definitely still be at play and a constantly slightly changing line that wiggles around.
Hypothetically speaking we could run a high fence down the side of 431 and then go in and take out all the does to the west of that line back for lets say 10 miles…….then put up another long north south run of high fence back around Hurtsboro and take our original one down…..this would over time create a shift of the November rut all the way back to our new fence in Hurtsboro as the river population filled back in that hole…….Now, that’s a far fetched hypothetical but it does represent the back and forth intermingling that is really going on to a lesser degree in this area as hunters and other factors take out does and others fill back in within this transition zone……..431 itself is probably now helping to maintain that boundary to some degree as it likely represents a natural boundary for many, many doe groups…..Instead of being a high fence it likely acts more like a restrictor plate on any doe immigration back and forth……There’s actually a little bit of natural selection at play here that favors the doe groups that don’t cross back and forth across 431 or any major highway if you see what I’m saying…..Does that make a habit of making routine trips back and forth across major highways don’t last long……that alone would create a defined line where any movement of that trait from doe groups in the east would be bottlenecked down and minimized.
