Educated Deer

[Double Naught Spy]

Most of the older deer around here will stand along the road and wait for the cars to go past. A lot of young ones will get hit until they learn and deer chased into traffic usually get hit.

I don't follow. If you claim that the dumb deer are getting killed off and only the smart deer are breeding, hence making more intelligent deer that are better at evading hunters, then why can't these more intelligent deer avoid being hit by cars? After all, the dumb ones are getting killed off, right?

You do make a good point, however, the older and more experienced, ergo more conditioned deer are not the ones that tend to get hit by cars. So it isn't a genetics issue, but a life experience conditioning issue.

The same holds for the deer being hunted. The young, inexperienced deer that don't make good choices end up as prey. The deer that grow older usually got that way by making good decisions (and a good bit of luck). They tend to be more wary.

[James R. Burke]

The other posts are correct. They pick up on things real fast. You can no doubt see it more into the season. One area may seem that way because of presure etc. Same with the grouse hunting later in the season the birds that been missed will get up faster and farther away. I take great pains trying to post were I will see no one, not saying that is the way to go some presure can also help a bit sometimes.