Ask The Biologist

Stage Fright

Stage Fright

By Bob Humphrey

Nighttime food plot activity is normal, especially on larger plots.

QUESTION: Is there a way to get the deer to come to food plots during daylight hours? They come to our plots all night long, but I hardly see any during the day.

ANSWER: Behaviorally, deer are considered crepuscular, meaning they’re most active at dawn and dusk. The more disturbance and negative interactions they experience from humans and predators, the more they become nocturnal. The first step would be to reduce human pressure as much as possible.

Deer also tend to spend less time in open areas like large food plots during full daylight. Building smaller, irregularly shaped plots with good adjacent cover is another way to encourage daytime use. Another option would be creating smaller staging plots between dense bedding cover and larger feeding plots as the deer may use these earlier in the afternoon before moving into the larger plots at night.

— Recent Ask the Biologist Question:

White Privilege: Protecting white deer doesn’t make biological sense. But it doesn’t really hurt, either. Find Out The Answer!

Copyright 2024 by Buckmasters, Ltd.

Copyright 2020 by Buckmasters, Ltd