An arm-sized tree shredded like a banana peel; freshly pawed earth beneath an overhead licking branch; a nervous trotting doe runs by the stand followed by a tending buck emitting a low grunt. These are the sights and sounds of bow hunting at this time of the year. Rutting activity is in the air. That intense phenomena that occurs in the woodlots, farm fields, and national forests every fall all across this continent. The whitetail rut, with all its sights, sounds, and even smells is just around the corner, and every bow hunter around knows it. Yet, as excited as bow hunters get by all this sign, it's a good bet that few really understand the true significance of rubs and scrapes, along with what defines that period we have all come to call "The Rut." In fact, few biologists and recognized whitetail authorities can even agree on the role these various factors play in the overall scheme of the breeding period. However, some of the latest research conducted by regional whitetail researches have shed new light on these subjects.
When I first started deer hunting, exactly 30 years ago from this fall, I remember being sold on the idea that bucks made rubs to take the velvet off their antlers. However, new research conducted by Dr. Ken Nordberg from the University Of Minnesota, who has written seven books on various aspects of whitetail deer behavior, suggests that this is not really a function of rubs at all. Dr. Nordberg, along with several other noted whitetail biologists and researchers, have suggested that bucks do not need to rub trees at all to remove velvet. When antlers harden in early September, the velvet simply begins to peel off on its own. While some bucks might speed up the removal process a bit by gently rubbing on smaller trees, many bucks simply let the velvet dangle until it dries up and falls off on its own. Bucks in prairie country are clear evidence that this is indeed true. Prairie country has few trees yet bucks have no problem shedding velvet. This is probably evidence enough that rubbing isn't necessarily a must for velvet removal. Some bucks might do it, but it really isn't a major function of rubs.
Nordberg and noted Wisconsin whitetail authority Greg Miller both suggest that rubbing occurs more as a territorial marking behavior than anything else. The more aggressive and dominant a particular buck is, the more often it rubs. Earlier in the fall, when a group of bucks is living together in a confined area, extensive rubbing might occur by the entire bachelor group. Bucks are generally separated from doe families throughout the majority of the year, right up until the actual breeding period. While in these bachelor groups, once they shed their velvet they'll rub and rub and rub as they move throughout their territories. As levels of the hormone testosterone increase in a buck's body, this aggression and territoriality become more pronounced. Rubbing trees is one way for a buck to vent this aggression, and lay down its territorial borders.
Eventually some definitive "rub lines" are developed. These rub lines will lead from bedding areas to feeding areas, and back again. By late October, a well defined rub line travel pattern of a particular buck is quite obvious in most habitats. Bucks will continue to utilize these favored routes and their individual rub lines right up until the breeding period which generally occurs around the 2nd week of November in northern Wisconsin.
The size of the trees rubbed is a good indicator of buck size, as well. Greg Miller, author of two very popular hunting books on whitetails, has often made the comment "big bucks might occasionally rub small trees, but small bucks rarely rub big trees."In other words, if you see a number of arm-sized rubs in your favorite hunting area, it's a good bet that there's a dandy buck living in that area. As the breeding period wains in late winter, hormonal levels decrease and consequently so does rubbing. Establishing breeding territories is no longer an interest or issue. Rubbed trees turn gray with the cold snows of February. Eventually, the buck's antlers serve no more purpose and are discarded by late winter."
So that's rubs, but what about scrapes? Well it was also once thought, and still is by some, that the main function of a scrape is to serve as a sexual communication between bucks and does. As the old wive's tale suggests, a buck would initially build a scrape. Then a doe would come by and urinate in that scrape to advertise her readiness to breed. Along comes this same buck, checking his scrapes, picks up that lusty odor and it leads him to his mate. While this might sound like it could work occasionally, new research suggests that scrapes serve absolutely no actual breeding function at all.
Both Nordberg and Miller, along with a growing number of today's whitetail wizards, claim that scrapes are for bucks not does. "The main function of a scrape"according to Wisconsin's Greg Miller, "is to monitor buck activity and advertise dominance to other bucks in that area. "Miller also is quick to point out "if scrapes are indeed so important to does and the breeding period, then why are they abandoned as soon as the breeding cycle starts to occur? Doesn't that doe need to urinate in a scrape before a buck can find her?"
Today's whitetail authorities have determined that scrapes are to male deer what the fire hydrant is to the local dog. Dominant aggressive male dogs stop to urinate at fire hydrants a long with any other convenient marker in order to advertise themselves to all the other dogs in the neighborhood. According to Nordberg, Miller, and the majority of those writing most of today's whitetail buck articles, this is precisely what male deer are doing when they build scrapes. "Scrapes are built to establish breeding territories and advertise who the top breeder is going to be", suggests Miller. "They have nothing to do with does or the actual breeding period."
Peak scraping generally occurs in late October through early November. Some experts now refer to this period as "The Scraping Period". As the peak breeding period draws closer, scraping intensifies. What's also worth noting is that most scrapes made are never revisited. Only a small percentage of scrapes get "reopened". Scrapes that get repeated use are positioned in areas with a lot of buck travel. As various bucks paw these scrapes open again and again, they grow larger in size. Whitetail researcher Peter Fiduccia calls these larger common-use scrapes, "Community Scrapes". Obviously, these are great scrapes to set up on for hunting.
Eventually, the first does begin emitting that magic love potion called estrus sometime in mid November. This is the scent and sign that bucks have longed for all fall. The dominant breeder bucks then abandon rub lines, abandon scrapes, and abandon their regular used trails. Instead, they'll aimlessly follow the estrus doe with a relentless passion. Wherever that doe goes, the buck goes. This is when big bucks show up in doe areas. This is also when lusty bucks throw most of their caution to the wind, and can be regularly seen running across open fields in hot pursuit.
Bucks find estrus does much the same as how all the local dogs in the neighborhood know when any female canine is "in heat". The scent is simply in the air. It is easily picked up as a buck "scent checks" areas. Greg Miller is quick to point out just how strong this estrus scent is and how good a deer's nose is."How does a deer generally peg a hunter? It smells him. A deer can smell a hunter well before it can see one. In fact, a deer's sense of smell is much more acute than its hearing or sight. You can fool a deer's eyes or ears, but never its nose. Now do you think this same animal needs to hear or see a doe in order to find it? All it needs is a whiff of estrus and he's off and running.
Nordberg and other biologists also point out that lesser, subordinate bucks might continue to work scrape lines early inside the actual breeding period. It is surmised that once the larger, older more dominant bucks abandon scrapes and chase does, some lesser bucks continue to work scrape lines in search of both bucks and does.This is done both out of frustration and anticipation. Some bucks continue scraping and rubbing hoping for a breeding opportunity that rarely comes along. In many environments, they're not allowed to breed. Larger more dominant bucks suppress the smaller males and chase them away from hot does.
Rubs, scrapes and the breeding period are still being studied each and every fall by whitetail researchers across the U.S. and Canada. As they learn more, it's almost certain that this information will be shared with all of us inside the pages of various outdoor publications. New books are also being written every year on the world of the whitetail.The rate of new information on the whitetail deer has increased tenfold from what it was when I first started hunting in 1968. What we'll likely learn in the next decade is likely to cement the findings of Nordberg, Miller, Fiduccia and other whitetail researchers.But we already know a lot more now than we did. So, the next time you see a ground scrape or a large rubbed tree on your treks through the woods this fall, I'll bet that you'll look at them with a whole new light.The scraping period is about to peak.The breeding period won't be far behind. If you're a bow hunter, you know that the best hunting of the year is just around the corner. Rubs, scrapes, rattling, and grunt calls" It's all happening right now! Don't miss it.