Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Aldeer General Forum Anybody seen evidence of a die off?

Every year there are die offs from EHD. Some years it’s worse than others.
Over heard some folks mention Midwest had an impact this year. 🤷‍♂️

Right now in our area we’re in that lull and plenty of acorns. Deer ain’t traveling much but that’ll be changing soon with the upcoming breeding and acorns disappearing. Skinning shed bucks are FAT

I have noticed lower body weights this year and smaller framed deer especially young does, yearlings. I’m gonna assume that’s form last years drought and lack of food.

Matt posted a very good thought on his facebook page about this a few days ago that from what I am seeing is spot on. I started the week hunting in troup co Georgia, a place where you can count 20+ whiteoaks from any stand that you hunt and left Wednesday morning frustrated with only seeing a couple of deer. I hunted Thursday morning just outside of Dothan and saw 20+ deer with several young racked bucks. The rut should be on at both properties, I am pretty much the only one who hunts both properties and have for years. The deer sightings are not typical for either place.

Deer haven’t gone anywhere. Just tons of natural food still out there.

My Marengo County buddy and his family have been killing some gooduns

Easy….EHD. It was bad this summer.

I was seeing tons of deer in north MS up until about 6 weeks ago when the acorns started falling. Now it's few and far between.

Yeah it would hit our area in Wilcox from time to time. Always seemed to take the bigguns too 😒

Any one frequented processors. They may have an idea of #’s being brought in. I realize lots are not reported.

Acorns, acorns, acorns. Past two years in my area, numbers in any one area were artificially high because of a lack of acorns. By late October last year, my does at any feeder were set - and they were there every day. This year at any feeder, I might have 6 foes one afternoon, 13 the next, 4 the next, etc. In situations like that, I know 13 are close by… but they’re not regular.

Another factor may be corn. The two guys I buy corn from tell me they’re selling a LOT less corn than in years past - talking about 70 percent less with one. IF you’re in an area where deer partially depended upon corn from your neighbors in years past, they may have relocated to more yellow pastures.

Deer are creatures of habit . Eat and sleep and drink water . When you have record crop of food in their backyard they don’t move very far to survive . I work in woods every day an have not seen one deer dead. In my area northwest al I see plenty deer. Nothing changed except mature bucks not moving much in daytime yet Rut bout kick off and they be moving more . Seen few small buck chasing does but does shy them away . It’s unreal the crop of acorns this yr . Ground is covered with may different kind of acorns. Lot pigs in area . Been trying feed them up so I can trap them . They will not come any where near my feeder . Too much other stuff to eat . Pics I have of deer are the fattest I’ve seen .

I’m getting 100+ pics a day on 4 cameras. No bait. Mine haven’t gone anywhere. In areas with plenty of acorns, it’s been a very dry fall, acorns have not rotted yet. Give it a little time, I bet they will come back.

We predicted this during the Summer when we started seeing plentiful mast crops. It happens every time. EVERY TIME! People start crying about we've killed too many etc. because they aren't seeing them in plots and over feeders. The deer are still there, they are just not moving as much or utilizing plots and feeders as much. When all the acorns are gone and wild food dies off, they'll be back in the plots and at feeders so don't panic yet. All is normal.

I am in Pickens County. Our sightings are a fraction of previous years. We have fields where seeing 20+ deer a day happened; 12-15 was normal; less that ten was a slow afternoon. In sits this year, we are seeing one or two. Had a friend sit in our historically best stand from 5am until 5pm a couple times this week and saw one deer. Another friend sat in a great place and saw nothing. This is the way it has been all year. Knowing the acorns are plentiful, I have spent much time in the woods. Saw two does one afternoon after five sits. Things picked up a tick in the past ten days. A little tick. This is rut time on our lease; always has been. In the past ten days, between my grandson and me, we have seen eight bucks cruising. Every one is a baby; not one has been older than a two year old. While I hope things change when the wild food expires, I don't see it happening. I am convinced that our numbers are down.

They are not down. At least not appreciably. You need to change how you are hunting right now.

Most lead poisoning I see them getting is from tire weights.

At least according to cameras, deer on our place have slowly been increasing in numbers. Question though what makes the acorns ruin? Cold?

I am hoping the numbers will increase more on our fields by mid January etc

Acorns and pressure. There was no die off. EHD did not impact AL on a population level anywhere this summer or fall. It was very low impact here.

Deer don’t disappear (die) on the scale ppl are wondering about without notice. Even small scale impacts are noticed by landowners and hunters.

Wet spring ✅
Heavy mast crop ✅
Hunting pressure ✅
December ✅

Your deer are fine. They are there. You’ll not believe me or anyone else when we say this until season is over, and the deer magically return, but I promise you, the deer are there and doing very well. The setup this year screamed success for deer and frustration from hunters, long before season even opened. You’re not seeing deer because they’re in superb physical condition. Deer don’t move unless they need to or have to. Neither applies right now. They are moving when and where they want to go based on hunting pressure and local habitat conditions.

White oak acorns either sprout or ruin within a few weeks. Red oak acorns may last all winter and sprout in spring if ‘26. The reds ain’t going anywhere soon.

One more thing, it’s going to be even worse leading into rut, because we are about to hit peak breeding over a huge portion of this state, with warmer than average temps.

^^
Preach it 😀