It’s good to be a gentleman in the woods, too.
QUESTION: We are currently culling deer in a national park. From you’re experience, do you remove bucks or does first? Is it true if you remove the bucks, the does will leave the area and go find the bucks, or is it the bucks that move into an area where the does are?
ANSWER: Circumstance often determines the best approach for specific management goals. Given that you’re culling deer in a national park, I have to imagine the National Park Service already has a specific plan for how best to accomplish their goals in that specific instance.
With culling programs in general, it is often a better idea to remove does first, but the reason is not biological. Like pretty much all hunters, the volunteers who participate in controlled hunts would rather shoot bucks. And there are often some dandies in places where hunting was previously prohibited or restricted. If allowed to, they get their buck and then quickly lose interest, so it’s more effective to make them earn a buck by first harvesting one or more does.
In general, the deer that live there aren’t going to leave their home range unless it’s in the back of a pickup truck. As hunting pressure increases, they’ll move less during daylight and more in thick cover. Bucks may wander off during the rut, but they’ll be back.
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