PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • November 8, 2024
I’m going to share a little secret on how to accurately predict peak rut every year. It never changes from one year to the next. There’s a good reason for that, especially in northern deer. Selective pressure pushes peak breeding into a relatively narrow window of time. If fawns are conceived too early in the fall and subsequently born too early in spring, there won’t be enough food available for nursing mothers; too late and they won’t have time to grow big enough to survive their first winter. Nature continually tests the limits and that produces exceptions over the long term, but fawns conceived closest to the peak period have the best chance for survival. So when will the rut occur this year? The same time it did last year, and the year before, and the year before that. ~ Bob Humphrey