Sparring bucks - Trail Cam pictures (18 October 2017)

I went out about a week ago and retrieved the memory cards from my trail cameras.  Both cameras are located along busy wildlife trails.  As Fall progresses toward Winter, the animals have become more active in their search for foods.  In the case of White-tailed Deer, they have also become increasingly active with the approach of mating season.  Also known as "the rut", mating season for White-tailed Deer is preceded by a period in which bucks actively seek does and compete with other bucks for mating opportunities.

As I tell students, "Bucks have antlers to fight, with other bucks, over girls."  This always gets a laugh.  Despite all the time I have spent in the woods, I have never seen this in person, but now I have captured it on a trail camera.

This small buck appears to be watching something in the distance...

It's another similar-sized buck.  The two size each other up for a moment...

Once they lock antlers, the goal is to push each other around until one buck decides that the other buck is more powerful and flees.

Most bucks will typically only engage a buck of similar size - a small buck will typically not attempt to fight a much-larger buck, but will submit without conflict.  Even if that occurs, the large buck may chase away smaller bucks in order to preserve his own mating opportunities.  The small bucks above would probably have fled immediately if confronted by the buck shown below.

One of these things is not like the other...

Over the course of the year, several different White-tailed Deer bucks have appeared on my trail cameras.  While looking at the pictures last night I noticed several sets from September that seem to show the same buck on multiple dates.  These  two sets of pictures date from 06 September and 16 September.  There is one major difference in the photos.  See if you can spot it. (Click on each photo to see a larger image.)

Set #1 (06 September)

Set #2 (16 September)

 

Did you notice the difference?  Here are two of the images cropped down to show it.

In the first picture, the buck's antlers are hung with tattered bloody velvet.  He is in the process of rubbing off the soft velvet that fed blood to his antlers as they developed.  By the end of August or beginning of September the antler is full developed and hardened.  At this point the deer will begin to rub off the velvet on small trees.  The velvet is still soft and peels off the antler.  The shedding velvet may bleed, but it is not painful for the deer.

Trail Cam Bucks

Trail cameras (or camera traps) have many uses. 

Biologists often use them to document animal species without disturbing their normal behavior patterns.  Maybe this is because the animals live in remote areas with little human presence.  Or they may use them to document species that live in populated areas, but are rarely seen because of nocturnal or secretive behaviors.  Ecologists often set these cameras on timers to record changes over time - for instance a camera may be set to take a photo at the same time every day thus recording vegetation growth or the melting of glacial ice.

Among non-scientists, trail cameras are used in similar ways.  Many landowners use them to document the different species that call their land home.  Probably the most common use (and the use that they are most often marketed for) is for the documentation of deer numbers and habits, especially the habits of bucks.

Over the past eight months my trail cameras have documented lots of White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus).  Most of the deer are does and fawns.  Occasionally a buck shows up on the camera.  This is always a thrill.  My latest set of trail cam pictures included images of three different bucks

First was a four-pointer or "forkhorn".  Here in the eastern United States, we count the total number of points on the set of antlers.  In the western United States points are counted differently and this would be considered a two-point buck as it has two points on each side.

The second buck to appear on camera was a six-pointer.  It has evenly matched antlers with three points on each side - so Out West this would be a three-pointer.

The final buck has appeared on camera several times.  I don't think I have shared any of his photos before.  Even after viewing numerous photographs, I'm not sure how many points this deer has on his antlers.  I think he has a pair of brow tines which are not visible from this angle.  If he does have brow tines, that makes him an eight-pointer. 

I believe this is the same deer photographed on my second camera.  In this picture, he definitely seems to have brow tines.  It is also possible that these are two separate deer.  It is difficult to tell based on the camera angles and distances.

Trail Camera Pictures (29 May - 14 June 2017)

Yesterday I retrieved memory cards from my trail cameras.  Here are pictures from one of the two cameras.

As always, there were dozens of pictures of squirrels on this camera.

Black phase Grey Squirrel

Fox Squirrel

There were also many White-tailed Deer of all ages and sizes.

One morning a Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) showed up.  Frustratingly, it was too close to the camera so only its ears and the top of its head showed up in the picture!

Red Fox (just the ears are visible at the bottom of the picture)

A pair of fawns showed up on camera several times, both with their mother and on their own.  I assume the mother was just off camera when the fawns appeared on their own.

White-tailed doe and fawns

White-tailed fawns with no doe in sight

In addition to fawns, bucks showed up on a couple of occasions.  At this point their antlers are just developing.  One of the bucks (last year's fawn) had just little buttons, but the second buck (shown below) has antlers that are already beginning to fork.

White-tailed buck licking its hoof

The lighting in some of these photos is pretty incredible, especially in the early morning and evening when it slants in at a fairly low angle, lighting up the more open background and leaving much of the middle-ground and foreground in shade.  This combination of light and shadow adding depth to an image is know as chiaroscuro.  In Italian chiaro means "light" and scuro means "dark". 

Portrait of a Fox Squirrel - this image demonstrates the principle of chiaroscuro.

I did have one new species appear on the camera during this time period - a Woodchuck (Marmota monax) showed up on two consecutive days.

A Woodchuck crosses from right to left

A woodchuck perched on a log at the center of the frame

My favorite photos this time are this series of six pictures of one a fawn (one of a pair).  I really like the chiaroscuro effect of these pictures - it adds a feeling of drama as the fawn advances from the dark toward the light.