Tracy,

In most areas, white-tailed deer don’t migrate.  They spend all year in the same general area.  The size of their home range decreases as the quality of the habitat increases.  Hence, the closer good sources of food, cover, and water occur, the smaller the home range of deer in that area.  I do work in areas where the accumulated snow levels exceed a deer’s ability to move and forage every year.  One example is in northern New York where deer have distinct summer and winter ranges.  These ranges can be 10+ miles apart!  Based on research using radio telemetry and other tools, it seems the same deer return to the same summer and winter ranges year after year.  The does apparently teach their fawns these migration patterns so it is a learned behavior.  This same behavior occurs across the northern portion of the whitetails’ range.  However, it is very rare to find deer that truly migrate south of the Snow Belt area.

Deer in the agricultural belt often have large annual home ranges and in some cases even shift their home ranges similar to deer in the Snow Belt.  This is caused by the shift in availability of food and cover related to the harvest of corn and soybean crops.  These areas are usually farmed year after year and once the crops are harvested, the deer move to areas of cover.  Like deer in the Snow Belt, the mini migrations in the agricultural areas tend to be passed on from mothers to their offspring.

Deer rarely “wander around” as they are very uncomfortable in areas where they don’t know the normal wind currents, and other factors that make them vulnerable to predation.  There are always a few exceptions, but in general mature deer are homebodies!  That’s one reason it’s tough to harvest mature deer as they know every object and scent within their home range.

Growing Deer together,

Grant