The Latest Research on Deer
Whether to Cull White-Tailed Bucks, and What about
the Possible Inferiority of Spike Bucks
 Editor’s
Note: Today outdoorsmen have begun to learn more about
the white-tailed deer. In the past, we haven’t
known the right questions to ask. But now scientists
and researchers have started studying deer more intensely.
Brian Murphy, QDMA executive director, has kept his
finger on the pulse of new deer research to inform the
members of QDMA and outdoors enthusiasts how to better
manage whitetails. This week, we’ll bring you
the latest research concerning deer.
Brian Murphy, QDMA executive director, explains that,
“A bull elk will round up a whole herd of cows
and have perhaps 10 cows in his harem. When each of
these cows comes into heat, the bull elk will breed
her and then eventually all 10. So, in an elk herd,
a single dominant bull will have a much greater impact
on the genetics of the herd than a dominant whitetail
will.” Murphy reports that what scientists have
learned about the way deer breed means good news and
bad news. A hunter can’t detrimentally impact
a deer herd since so many different bucks contribute
to that genetic gene pool. Even if someone bags the
wrong buck, or there’s an over-harvest of bucks,
still so many bucks will contribute to the gene pool
that a herd won’t have a great number of inferior
bucks. But people who dream of manipulating the genetics
of a deer herd by harvesting poorly-antlered bucks more
 than
likely can’t impact a herd, especially one on
small acreages. “Shooting cull bucks has no statistical
chance of making a difference in the quality of your
deer herd,” Murphy says. “Whether you should
or shouldn’t harvest cull bucks is debatable.
That cull buck is taking up space and eating groceries
and will breed, so I guess you still should take it.
But don’t believe that you’re changing the
genetic structure of your deer herd dramatically if
you harvest cull white-tailed bucks. Many times malformed
antlers have nothing at all to do with genetics.”
Murphy mentions an ongoing study on 10,000 acres on
the King Ranch in Texas, conducted by Dr. Mickey Hellickson,
chief wildlife biologist on the King Ranch. Over a 6-year
period, using hunters on the ground and shooters from
helicopters, this study removed every single cull buck
found on those 10,000 acres. “After 6 years of
absolutely removing every low-quality buck that could
be located, the average-age-class buck on the study
area was actually smaller than the bucks in the surrounding
control areas,” Murphy comments. “They found
at the King Ranch that they had zero effect and probably
had had a negative effect when they intensively harvested
what they would consider cull bucks. This culling program
on 10,000 acres was much-more intense than any hunting
club could ever duplicate. There were no positive effects
that could be shown on a deer herd in the  wild
by culling inferior bucks.”
The Inferiority of Spike Bucks:
Through the years, biologists and hunters have quoted
two studies with different outcomes as the gospel concerning
spike bucks, one done on the Carr Wildlife Management
Area in Texas and the other conducted by Harry Jacobson
at Mississippi State University (MSU). The Texas study
reports on the inferiority of spike bucks and proves
that 1-1/2-year-old spike bucks don’t produce
as many antlers or antlers as large at maturity as branched-antler
bucks at 1-1/2-years old do. However, the Jacobson MSU
study proves that, at least in the Southeast, late birth
and poor nutrition can cause small antlers in 1-1/2-year-old
bucks that aren’t genetically inferior. Spike
bucks can catch up to the branch-antlered bucks with
more age and better food, and often have larger sizes
than the bucks that are branch-antlered at 1- to 1-1/2-years
old. A more-recent study by Dr. Mickey Hellickson, the
chief wildlife biologist at the King Ranch in Texas,
who has the largest sample size in the world of wild
bucks with monitoring from yearling to 5- and 6-year-old
deer, has shown that bucks that start with 3 points
at 1-1/2-years of age have statistically-smaller sizes
than the bucks with 4 points or more at 1-1/2-years
old by the time they reach 5- and 6-years old. The 3-point-and-less
1-1/2-year-old bucks score about 20 inches smaller on
Boone & Crockett at 5- and 6-years old than the
bucks with 4 points or more at 1-1/2-years old do at
ages 5 or 6 years.
In Hellickson’s Texas study, he’s managed
all these bucks under a quality-deer- management
program or a trophy-deer program and fed all the deer
supplementally with highly-nutritional food. The size
of the deer herd is kept under high restrictions so
that there’s no reason for a deer to have less
than 3 points at 1-1/2-years old or older. If you compare
this statistic to the late rut in Alabama when does
have fawns in August or September, you certainly can
see why a buck can’t have 4 to 6 points by hunting
season. Brian Murphy, executive director of the Quality
Deer Management Association (QDMA) in Bogart, Georgia,
a great organization that Hunter’s Specialties
sponsors, concludes that in the South, spikes serve
as more of an indication of age and nutrition rather
than a sign of inferior genetics. No blanket answer
like one shoe fits all explains deer herds. The availability
of food, the health of the herd, the size of the herd
and many other factors, besides strictly genetics, play
roles in antler development. The more we learn about
deer, the more we realize that we can best manage deer
on a property-by-property basis, since researchers have
found very-few absolutes. Never set up a deer-management
program
based on what other people have done in other areas.
Instead, determine the best type of deer-management
program for the hunters in your club, the deer on your
property, the soil types, vegetation and the terrain
you hunt.
To learn more about QDMA, go to http://www.qdma.com
or call 1-800-209-DEER.
Tomorrow: The Importance of
Photographing Deer and Developing a Hit List to Learn
the Most about Your Land’s Deer Herd
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