Penn State Deer-Forest Study

If you wanted to wager when 50% of females are bred, I’d recommend picking November 13th. Every year. The PGC checked embryos in more than 6,000 road-killed does over 8 years and found no change in the median date that does became pregnant.

That means that the peak of the rut occurred last Thursday, and we have updated the Rut Tracker!

Movements of males are below average, but overall movements have increased the last few days. Males have averaged a cumulative distance traveled since October 1st of over 50 miles. On November 12th they averaged 3 miles.

Females continue to show the lowest movements we’ve seen over the past decade. They only moved about half a mile per day.

-Duane Diefenbach

*If you are a first-time commenter on the blog, your post will not appear until it has been approved by the moderator. This is to prevent spam from overwhelming us. If you do not see your post within 24 hours, please email us at deerforeststudy@gmail.com

11 comments on “The rut is half over”

Fascinating. Thank you.

I have seen a solid acorn crop at least in the SE corner of the state where I hunt. I would have to imagine a good mast crop plays a role in reduced movement among both does and bucks. Are there any other factors you see as playing a role in reduced movement this season?

Duane Diefenbach says:

November 15, 2025 at 11:43 am

No, but I also don’t have the data needed to disprove the food hypothesis.

In our hunting area of north central pa. we had no acorn crop for 2 years in a row due to heavy gypsy moth infestation. As a result we had lots of buck and doe traffic all day long on our 10+ acres of clover. This year is a good acorn crop and minimal deer traffic in the clover fields. I have to believe there is some connection?

I live in Northern Michigan and this has been the “slowest” rut, and really the slowest bow season, most everyone I know can remember. The deer are there, obviously they are breeding, but historically good spots are producing marginal sightings at best. We had a 500 year ice storm decimate our woods this spring. In some places it feels as if you are walking three miles just to go a mile due to all the blow downs. It’s bad.

Hunters are wondering if this had an impact. If you’re hunting areas the deer no longer use due to the obstructions, then yes. But all areas seem to be affected. It’s very odd and the worst I’ve ever experienced. I’m chalking it up to this year being on the far left side of the bell curve, for whatever reason, and hoping next year will be better.

Jerry Carmien says:

November 18, 2025 at 2:03 pm

I would agree, hunting in MI (Bay County). The mature bucks are there, just have not moved in patterns consistent with previous seasons. Sightings (in person / camera) usually spike with mature buck movement significantly increasing after Halloween. What has caught my attention is the lack of nighttime sightings, which are abnormally low this year.

I live in southeast Pa. WMU 5C and hunt north eastern montgomery county and northwestern bucks county. I have been out archery hunting 12 times and am seeing more not legal spikes than I have ever seen. My buddy has had 2or3 legal Ys with spikes or just plain larges spikes in front of him at least 5 times. Hardly any doe. My question is because of the bad drought here the last two years has that affected buck antler growth because of not getting the right nutrients?

I hunt the northern Penn State study area and have heard a lot of coyotes just before and after dark. What is the deer(all) mortality rate caused by coyotes and bears?

Duane Diefenbach says:

November 30, 2025 at 7:14 pm

Bear and coyotes have little effect on adult mortality. After hunting mortality, most adult deer die from vehicle collisions. We wrote a series of blog posts about fawn survival, which is most influenced by predation. We have many blog posts on this topic – you can start here (but enter “fawn survival” in the search bar and find many more):

https://www.deer.psu.edu/fawns-predators-and-deer-populations-whats-the-bottom-line-on-fawn-survival/
https://www.deer.psu.edu/i-wish/
https://www.deer.psu.edu/drooling-for-evidence/

I am late to this party. But, looking at your data of rut movement and the lack thereof, what affect would extreme drought have on the movement? In the northeast we experienced severe drought that impacted soft mast( apples, etc). And we witnessed a “soft” rut. Good seeking in late October and early November but little chasing.

Duane Diefenbach says:

December 15, 2025 at 8:34 am

If the drought reduced food availability I would expect greater movement, not less, as deer sought food sources. As I have mentioned before, what each of us observes with respect to the rut is dependent on local conditions. However, at a population level the rut peaked at the same time as last year and the same percentage of females will become pregnant (at least here in PA).

Comments are closed.