Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 550: Foundations - Animals Are Assh@$*es

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Ep. 550: Foundations - Animals Are Assh@$*es · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundation's podcast, your guide
0:05
Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, and now your host,
0:11
Speaker 1: Tony Peterson. Hey, everybody, welcome to the Wire to Hunt
0:14
Speaker 1: Foundation's podcast, which has brought to you by First Light.
0:17
Speaker 1: Today's episode is all about how animals are kind of
0:19
Speaker 1: generally assholes and why that knowledge can help you kill
0:22
Speaker 1: more dear I know I probably don't have to say
0:38
Speaker 1: this at this point, but I've gotta anyway, this episode
0:40
Speaker 1: is going to be a weird one. It's about animal
0:42
Speaker 1: behavior and something that I truly believe we can use
0:45
Speaker 1: to our advantages hunters. I've preached this a lot about
0:48
Speaker 1: how important it is to learn dear behavior to really
0:51
Speaker 1: figure out what makes them tick. I think it's the
0:53
Speaker 1: secret sauce to the best hunters, and the key you
0:56
Speaker 1: can find to unlock how to have more fun in
0:58
Speaker 1: the woods. In our backyard, we have a shared pond
1:13
Speaker 1: with a couple of our neighbors. It's one of the
1:15
Speaker 1: things that sold me on our house, partially because the
1:17
Speaker 1: realtor told me it was spring fed and full of fish.
1:20
Speaker 1: Well that was bullshit, I soon found out, and I
1:23
Speaker 1: should have known better. I grew up in the driftless
1:25
Speaker 1: area in Minnesota, where spring fed streams and the trout
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Speaker 1: that live in them dominated much of my outdoor time
1:30
Speaker 1: for a good portion of my formative years. Where I've
1:33
Speaker 1: lived now, it's kind of much more like swampy, less beautiful,
1:37
Speaker 1: and definitely not something you'd expect to be spring fed anyway.
1:42
Speaker 1: The only fish in there are mud minnows, which some
1:44
Speaker 1: species of ducks like to eat, other species, the non
1:48
Speaker 1: pascatarian type ducks. They still swing through the pond at
1:51
Speaker 1: various times of the year, mostly spring and fall for
1:55
Speaker 1: obvious migration related reasons, and during the spring usually because
2:00
Speaker 1: turkey season isn't quite here yet and cabin fever has
2:02
Speaker 1: made Tony a very dull boy. I'll set up a
2:05
Speaker 1: blind in the backyard to photograph the teal and the woodyes,
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Speaker 1: the mallards, golden eyes, I know, spoonbills whoever might happen
2:12
Speaker 1: to fancy a paddle in our backyard swamp pond. And
2:15
Speaker 1: because of the orientation of the pond, the light gets
2:18
Speaker 1: really good as the evening progresses and the setting sun
2:20
Speaker 1: creates its golden hour. That means I spend a lot
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Speaker 1: of time watching ducks that aren't in the ideal photospot,
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Speaker 1: hoping they'll swim on over and pose for me. When
2:29
Speaker 1: you spend a lot of time watching ducks, even cute
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Speaker 1: little wood ducks, you realize something. They are assholes. They
2:37
Speaker 1: fight all the time. The mallards do too, and for
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Speaker 1: some reason, maybe because they are more common, so I
2:43
Speaker 1: see it more. Greenheads kind of seemed to have a
2:45
Speaker 1: penchant for violence. I don't know why ducks fight, but
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Speaker 1: they do. I don't know why. As a friend of
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Speaker 1: mine explained recently, after a half ass attempt to shear
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Speaker 1: her pet sheep that her goats attacked it. It stressed
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Speaker 1: her out and explained that it was like trying to
3:01
Speaker 1: separate dogs that are fighting. That sheep and her three
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Speaker 1: goats they lived together every day, but when she sheared
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Speaker 1: the sheep, even poorly, the goats saw it as something
3:11
Speaker 1: different and they went into attack mode. Why. Who knows,
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Speaker 1: But it goes to show you that not only our
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Speaker 1: ducks assholes, but so our goats and deer are two.
3:24
Speaker 1: And I know you guys love it when I quote
3:25
Speaker 1: tool songs, and if you want to hear a good one,
3:27
Speaker 1: check out Vicarious in It. Maynard says the lines. The
3:31
Speaker 1: universe's hostile, so personal devour to survive. So it is
3:37
Speaker 1: so it's always been. What he means by that is
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Speaker 1: the demand for personal resources is real high in nature,
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Speaker 1: and we're a part of nature, of course. But even
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Speaker 1: if you decide we are different because we are sentient
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Speaker 1: and deserve the earth resources, it doesn't change the fact
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Speaker 1: that animals are assholes and we're animals quote unquote. Lower
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Speaker 1: life forms are operating on pretty much the same wavelength
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Speaker 1: no matter what. It goes. Right up through the animal kingdom,
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Speaker 1: just about every creature out there is looking out for
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Speaker 1: itself as far as food and water goes, as well
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Speaker 1: as its most advantageous spot in the ecosystem. Just look
4:14
Speaker 1: at what happens when you've got a mature buck on
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Speaker 1: your lease that is by all accounts of badass, biker,
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Speaker 1: gang enforcer type of buck, and then he gets killed
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Speaker 1: the bench he loved to bet on because it was
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Speaker 1: perfectly unapproachable. Someone is going to occupy that spot almost instantly.
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Speaker 1: I'm going to talk about that in a few episodes
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Speaker 1: from now when I talk about buck betting. But we've
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Speaker 1: probably all experienced it, and you can see this everywhere
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Speaker 1: in nature, even in herd animals, even in super social
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Speaker 1: animals like deer, dominance, uh dominates and everyone else settles
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Speaker 1: for a little bit less. And we think about this
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Speaker 1: most often when it comes to bucks, for you know,
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Speaker 1: pretty obvious reasons and for starters. We are obsessed with
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Speaker 1: buck behavior and we want explanation. It is for it.
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Speaker 1: We want to know why the only one fifty in
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Speaker 1: the section seems to show up well after dark and
5:05
Speaker 1: only leave traces of his presence through thigh sized rubs
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Speaker 1: on the island in the swamp. Where to reach him
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Speaker 1: as he naps away the daylight hours, you have to
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Speaker 1: slog through a cranberry bug. He is unapproachable for the
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Speaker 1: most part in that very spot for a very good reason.
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Speaker 1: He kind of won the game. He beat up all
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Speaker 1: the other bucks, or at least he stood them down.
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Speaker 1: He survived multiple bow and gun seasons, and he's identified
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Speaker 1: the best, most advantageous spots out there. He will cling
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Speaker 1: to them and his safe way of life because that's
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Speaker 1: what nature does. It doesn't give an inch without a
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Speaker 1: fight or a credible threat. It also doesn't suffer weakness
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Speaker 1: very well. We see this most often with turkeys. The
5:50
Speaker 1: easiest example is when you call him multiple birds and
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Speaker 1: you dump one, and then you watch his buddies pile on.
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Speaker 1: We see this in the spring with long beards and
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Speaker 1: Jake's all the time. But Hen to do this too.
6:01
Speaker 1: And if you don't believe that, shoot a dominant Hen
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Speaker 1: in the fall and watch how Oliver her sisters pile
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Speaker 1: onto her still warm body. The change in dynamics is
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Speaker 1: instant and it's powerful. It's a powerful thing to witness.
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Speaker 1: Hell last year I hunted turkeys on a farm here
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Speaker 1: in Minnesota that was pretty light on birds. Other than
6:19
Speaker 1: a few jakes. It seemed like there were two toms
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Speaker 1: on the farm, And after an embarrassing amount of trying
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Speaker 1: to outsmart those birds, I finally called him into bow range.
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Speaker 1: But what I didn't do was shoot very well. I
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Speaker 1: hit the dominant tom low, and it gave him an
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Speaker 1: instant limp. In the moment he took a step and
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Speaker 1: it was obvious there was a little hitch in his
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Speaker 1: giddey up. The subordinate buddy went after him. It was
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Speaker 1: the quickest reversal of dominance that I've ever witnessed in nature.
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Speaker 1: In fact, that bird survived, and I got to watch
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Speaker 1: them several times as the clock ran out of that season,
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Speaker 1: and he never regained his spot. I often wonder if
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Speaker 1: that other Tom said a silent prayer for the bad
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Speaker 1: archer and the blind that night, because I gave him
7:01
Speaker 1: his chance to get called up to the big leagues. Now,
7:04
Speaker 1: when it comes to bucks, we think about this in
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Speaker 1: the get rich quick realm. We think about it as
7:10
Speaker 1: a far as you know calling is concerned. If you're
7:13
Speaker 1: gonna ground out a buck, you might want him to
7:15
Speaker 1: be a fighter. If you're gonna snort we's at one,
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Speaker 1: you definitely want him to be a fighter. Although I'm
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Speaker 1: calling a slight level of BS on that. I've snort
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Speaker 1: weasd in young bucks and bucks that just didn't seem
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Speaker 1: like they'd be the king of the hill, if you
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Speaker 1: know what I mean. And I think that's important too,
7:31
Speaker 1: because the dominance hierarchy doesn't exist with one top dude
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Speaker 1: and the rest being subordinates. I mean, sure, the rest
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Speaker 1: are subordinates to that guy or that gal, and at
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Speaker 1: least all the other bucks in the immediate areare. But
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Speaker 1: the second in command doesn't rank as low as the
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Speaker 1: eighties three pound spike who doesn't quite have any funz
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Speaker 1: on his clackers. Yet dominance trickles down, and that means
7:55
Speaker 1: the three and a half year old, then, I don't know,
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Speaker 1: measures a cool eighteen inches. You know, he might not
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Speaker 1: be the top dog in your neighborhood, but he certainly
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Speaker 1: ranks higher than many of the other bucks, probably all
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Speaker 1: the does. And you know what, he might fight to
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Speaker 1: keep that spot. Hell, he probably will if he's in
8:14
Speaker 1: the right mood. But this isn't really about calling though,
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Speaker 1: although that's worth thinking about. If you see a buck
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Speaker 1: this fall and you don't think he's gonna come in,
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Speaker 1: take his temperature with a grunt or snortwise, Sometimes they
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Speaker 1: run away, sometimes they ignore it, and sometimes they take
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Speaker 1: off their shirt and they say I do respect you, bro,
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Speaker 1: while huffing and puffing as they come in with their
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Speaker 1: monster energy drink tattoos and their backwards flat brimmed hats.
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Speaker 1: Dominance is important when it comes to decoying, too. If
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Speaker 1: you want to challenge a buck to come in, you
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Speaker 1: better show him a buck that looks not only like
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Speaker 1: he really doesn't belong, but acts like he does. That
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Speaker 1: Dave smith Fellow who makes the turkey decoys that will
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Speaker 1: change your life. If you're a gobbler bow hunter. He
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Speaker 1: makes the decoys well for deer, and you should take
9:02
Speaker 1: a look at it, and then you should take a
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Speaker 1: look at the other decoys on the market. His buck
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Speaker 1: just has swagger and it shows his turkey decoys due too.
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Speaker 1: And if you get the chance to chat with him
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Speaker 1: like I have, you'll hear from a guy who has
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Speaker 1: studied nature. He's watched how animals interact and what body
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Speaker 1: language they use to trigger specific responses out of rivals.
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Speaker 1: And it's a beautiful blend of science and art and
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Speaker 1: it works because it plays off the fact that animals
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Speaker 1: are largely assholes. Understanding that about bucks is important, and
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Speaker 1: it's also kind of inherent. If you watch dear enough,
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Speaker 1: you'll see box bar and you'll see box fight. You'll
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Speaker 1: see young bucks test older bucks a little, but run off.
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Speaker 1: When the older buck pins his ears, back, rolls his
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Speaker 1: eyes and starts to step toward Jr. Usually a side step.
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Speaker 1: This is a clear signal that I'm the man and
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Speaker 1: you're not. And if you're feeling froggy, little forky, you
10:00
Speaker 1: can jump. Okay. I don't know you know what exactly
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Speaker 1: they're thinking, or if do you even know what frogs are.
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Speaker 1: But you get the point. It's not just the boys
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Speaker 1: who were assholes, though, it's the ladies too. If you
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Speaker 1: don't believe that, google women fights or something similar, you'll
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Speaker 1: see plenty of checks throw down for as dumber reasons
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Speaker 1: as guys do. In the white tail woods, you see
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Speaker 1: this as well. In fact, I think the most underappreciated
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Speaker 1: aspect of white tails. I should say that one of
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Speaker 1: the most underappreciated aspects of white tails is how much
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Speaker 1: the whole herd lives by dominance. I once owned a
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Speaker 1: property close to my house in the Twin Cities where
10:38
Speaker 1: I put in a small kill plot. While we always
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Speaker 1: had a few deer hit it throughout the week, eventually,
10:43
Speaker 1: when I figured out how to get clover growing in there,
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Speaker 1: we had a big, old, long nose dough just kind
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Speaker 1: of lay claim to the spot. She was in there
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Speaker 1: a lot, and she was a straight up biz natchow.
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Speaker 1: She would rear back and start throwing hooves at any
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Speaker 1: deer that got close to her or her fawns. It
11:01
Speaker 1: was actually kind of awesome to witness. Now, remember what
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Speaker 1: I said earlier about claiming resources and fighting for them,
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Speaker 1: That's exactly what she was doing. She tolerated other deer
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Speaker 1: in the woods, you know, because they kind of have to,
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Speaker 1: but on that spot with a limited amount of food,
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Speaker 1: it was a different story. There wasn't a dough I
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Speaker 1: saw her interact with on that plot that she wouldn't
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Speaker 1: push off, And she actually went after quite a few
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Speaker 1: of the younger bucks, And I never got to see
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Speaker 1: her mess with an older buck, so I can't say
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Speaker 1: anything on that, although I doubt she would have been
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Speaker 1: much of a threat to a mature buck, but the
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Speaker 1: smaller ones she wasn't forced to be reckoned with. This
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Speaker 1: is important because it tells you a lot about the
11:41
Speaker 1: lives of deer that little for key on public land
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Speaker 1: that sets up shop next to the parking area. Sure
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Speaker 1: he might be dumb and not know any better, or
11:50
Speaker 1: he might just not have better options. He might be
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Speaker 1: doing as good as the rest of the deer will
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Speaker 1: let him do. That little dough you see off your
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Speaker 1: favorite stand every night, the one who hits the field
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Speaker 1: an hour before all the other deer, she's probably in
12:03
Speaker 1: the same boat. Hell. I had one of those does
12:06
Speaker 1: living by a stand of mine in southern Minnesota, and
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Speaker 1: I almost shot her an opening morning because she looked
12:12
Speaker 1: super duper delicious, but for some reason I let her walk,
12:16
Speaker 1: and then every time I sat there she kept me company,
12:19
Speaker 1: and in late October she ran past me with an
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Speaker 1: awesome split brow ten pointer on her tail, and I
12:24
Speaker 1: took him off her hands. It's kind of weird how
12:27
Speaker 1: stuff like that works out in the woods sometimes, but
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Speaker 1: that makes it really special. In fact, the year after
12:32
Speaker 1: I graduated high school, I sat in a stand in
12:34
Speaker 1: that same spot, but not the same tree. In late September,
12:38
Speaker 1: after sitting that stand quite a few times, I had
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Speaker 1: a two year old eight pointer walk up to my
12:42
Speaker 1: tree in the dark before it got light out. I
12:45
Speaker 1: could just see his shape, and I thought it was
12:46
Speaker 1: weird that I hadn't seen that buck earlier. And the
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Speaker 1: next time I could hunt, I rattled right at first
12:52
Speaker 1: light and he came in and I killed him. Honestly,
12:55
Speaker 1: I kind of felt bad because he seemed lost, and
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Speaker 1: the only thing I could think of was that he
12:59
Speaker 1: got booted out of somewhere else and he took up
13:01
Speaker 1: residence right around the tree stand I love to hunt
13:03
Speaker 1: more than any of the others. That was a really
13:05
Speaker 1: bad move on his part, and I don't think that
13:08
Speaker 1: buck came in to fight. I think he just came
13:09
Speaker 1: in to see who was around. It doesn't matter really
13:13
Speaker 1: either way, but it is kind of interesting. It's also
13:15
Speaker 1: an interesting thing to think about how animals, specifically white tails,
13:19
Speaker 1: being assholes can help you kill them. Think about the
13:24
Speaker 1: best spots on the ground you hunt and why a
13:26
Speaker 1: buck would be there. Think about not just that a
13:30
Speaker 1: buck might be bettered on the swamp edge or up
13:32
Speaker 1: on a ridge, but why what does that spot do
13:34
Speaker 1: for him? Doesn't help keep him alive? How? Or think
13:39
Speaker 1: about the caliber of buck you'd be happy with. Is
13:42
Speaker 1: that a two year old? Where would he live on
13:45
Speaker 1: your ground? Where would a respectable buck take up residence
13:48
Speaker 1: on the public land you might travel to this fall?
13:51
Speaker 1: How does all of this relate to resources like food
13:53
Speaker 1: and water? How does it relate to safety? How would
13:57
Speaker 1: a truly dominant buck use of property versus a younger,
14:00
Speaker 1: less dominant deer? How did the deer interact when you
14:03
Speaker 1: see them? Or a more appropriate example would be what
14:06
Speaker 1: do your summertime trail camera images show you? Are you
14:10
Speaker 1: seeing bucks travel together like they should in the summer?
14:13
Speaker 1: How many deer do you consistently see on your plot
14:16
Speaker 1: or come into your pond, Who comes in first, who
14:19
Speaker 1: comes in last, who sticks around when a specific deer
14:23
Speaker 1: comes in, or who disappears. All these interactions that we
14:27
Speaker 1: see through piecemeal intel. They don't tell the whole picture,
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Speaker 1: but they can tell you a lot. They tell you
14:33
Speaker 1: that maybe there aren't too many bucks around and the
14:36
Speaker 1: hierarchy is a little subdued. Or they might tell you
14:39
Speaker 1: that your buck to door ratio is solid and your
14:42
Speaker 1: gear classes are pretty special. Then you'll have some deer
14:45
Speaker 1: sorting stuff out. That's important. This spring. I had that
14:48
Speaker 1: situation with the turkeys on a farm I hunt near
14:50
Speaker 1: my home. It was mostly male birds early on, and
14:54
Speaker 1: calling them in was almost laughably easy the first few
14:56
Speaker 1: times we went out. In fact, the second night of
14:59
Speaker 1: the season and after one of my twin daughters killed
15:01
Speaker 1: an opening night, I called in nine jakes and five
15:04
Speaker 1: toms to the decoys. That's a record for me, and
15:07
Speaker 1: it was made possible by the skewed sex ratio out there.
15:10
Speaker 1: You know that eventually leveled off. And for the record,
15:13
Speaker 1: when she dumped one of those tom's, the rest of them,
15:17
Speaker 1: you know, they let him have it as he flopped
15:19
Speaker 1: his way to gobbler Heaven. And it was really cool
15:21
Speaker 1: to see. So I guess the point of this episode
15:24
Speaker 1: is this. The more you understand what makes dear tick,
15:29
Speaker 1: the more you can predict what they'll do. After all,
15:32
Speaker 1: that's what we're all trying to figure out, right, What
15:35
Speaker 1: makes bucks do what bucks do? Why some bucks I
15:39
Speaker 1: don't run away from a decoy, while others just give
15:42
Speaker 1: it a drive by in a few licks of their
15:44
Speaker 1: nose and size up the situation and suddenly come in
15:47
Speaker 1: looking for a brawl. When you start to pay attention
15:50
Speaker 1: to not only the most dominant bucks, but the rest
15:52
Speaker 1: of the herd and how they interact, you start seeing
15:56
Speaker 1: a clearer picture of the motivations for all of the deer.
16:00
Speaker 1: You see how that plays out in their herd dynamics,
16:02
Speaker 1: but also how they approach food and water and bedding
16:05
Speaker 1: cover and the things they need to survive. And honestly,
16:09
Speaker 1: the more you can unravel those mysteries, the more you'll
16:11
Speaker 1: be able to fill tags no matter where you hunt,
16:13
Speaker 1: which is something we all aspire to. So that, Oh,
16:17
Speaker 1: that's my spiel on why animals are assholes, But that's
16:19
Speaker 1: okay for you white tail hunters out there. Tune in
16:24
Speaker 1: next week for more white tail, no how, and embarrassing
16:27
Speaker 1: stories about my life. As for now, this has been
16:30
Speaker 1: the wire to Hunt Foundations podcast, which is brought to
16:32
Speaker 1: you by First Light. I'm your host, Tony Peterson, and
16:35
Speaker 1: I truly want to thank you for your support. It
16:37
Speaker 1: means the world to me and Mark and the rest
16:39
Speaker 1: of the Mediator crew. Feel free to get more your
16:42
Speaker 1: white tail fixed by visiting the meteor dot com slash
16:45
Speaker 1: wired or by visiting our wire do Hunt YouTube channel,
16:48
Speaker 1: where we drop weekly how to videos.