Have you observed deer scared of Jeep but not tractor?

Mennoniteman

Mennoniteman

Well-Known Member
Does anybody else see this strange phenomenon in deer behavior, I'm not quite sure why it is? I often drive through the woods in my silver Grand Cherokee, and I rarely if ever see deer, if I do they are running. But when I drive the same woods roads with my bright blue 75 hp cab tractor I see deer standing everywhere looking at me like I'm from another planet?
Maybe my deer r just strange, or is it me...
 
It's not just you. My tractor (orange) never scared deer like my dark gray pickup or my white one-ton. My golf cart though, they paid little attention to, as long as you kept moving. The hogs however, ran like scalded cats at any sign of humans, even noise if it were close enough.
 
Tractors have a unique sound pattern - especially older tractors. They don't sound like an automobile or truck. They are geared lower also.

If a farmer walks to the barn in the dark to feed beside deer in a nearby field and they can smell him they will not run usually. They know him by smell and they know his routine. He goes to the barn and he goes back to the house and he don't present danger to the deer.

If a farmer does the same thing in the dark with the blowing in the opposite direction as the deer, they will run from the intruder in the dark. They can't smell - they hear - it is danger.

Not sure if everyone believes this but the deer do know some farmers by smell. City deer that live in neighborhoods and browse fertilizer shrubs act different than we would expect also.

Wayne
 
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I've seen deer bed down withing 30 yards of a poppin johnny oil well and not be fazed by the racket they produce. But slam your truck door 100 yard from them and they all jump up and run to the timber. They get used to certain sounds and smells from what I've seen. Hogs though, if you step on a twig and break it they will jump up and run for half a mile.
 
Practically ever year I have deer feeding within 100 yards while on tractor. One year I had a doe and two fawns stay in a clover field while I mowed it. I got within 15 yards before they moved to the other side of field. Tractors don’t scare them at all.


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I agree with all the above. It's what they get used to. I bowhunt behind my house about 200 yards from a highway. Early in the morning there's lots of traffic. It doesn't bother them at all. In fact, I generally use a car's passing noise to draw my bow as a cover sound.

Another place the highway, (a bigger, busier one), hides the sound of my pickup driving in behind a rifle stand and the opening and closing of my doors.
 
I always thought it was neat that the the local deer can know and recognize us individually. I wonder how much differently they react to different humans, if they truly can effectively identify them. Do they know and think of me as the food guy?


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Elkaddict said:
Our deer come check out what I’m doing when on the tractor. More frightened by SxS, lot more frightened by ATV. I think part of it is the relative speed the vehicles tend to move.
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That makes some sense.
Zeek said:
Because nobody shoots at them out of a tractor.
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That may change shortly...
wbpdeer said:
Tractors have a unique sound pattern - especially older tractors. They don't sound like an automobile or truck. They are geared lower also.

If a farmer walks to the barn in the dark to feed beside deer in a nearby field and they can smell him they will not run usually. They know him by smell and they know his routine. He goes to the barn and he goes back to the house and he don't present danger to the deer.

If a farmer does the same thing in the dark with the blowing in the opposite direction as the deer, they will run from the intruder in the dark. They can't smell - they hear - it is danger.

Not sure if everyone believes this but the deer do know some farmers by smell. City deer that live in neighborhoods and browse fertilizer shrubs act different than we would expect also.

Wayne
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The sound pattern sounds plausible. They're not smelling someone in an enclosed cab.
Drycreek said:
It's not just you. My tractor (orange) never scared deer like my dark gray pickup or my white one-ton. My golf cart though, they paid little attention to, as long as you kept moving. The hogs however, ran like scalded cats at any sign of humans, even noise if it were close enough.
Click to expand...
So much for the saying of orange scaring deer.
 
Another place I hunt has a dirt road that runs just outside our lease and during the season there's always traffic from atvs and pickups late morning and early evening. I've been in my stand several times with deer in front of me, and although they can't see the road, they can hear the vehicles, and most of them will pick their heads up, follow the sound and as it fades, just go back to eating in the plot. Some, the younger ones, don't even look up.
 
Have had similar observations to above

i will flush them away during a pass with thrown n mow and see them in rear view mirror after cutting a swath

they don't perceive my kubota to be a threat

bill
 
I see deer do many of the things mentioned above as well. I have been mowing with my tractor and rotary mower making all sorts of noise and the deer stand there like, "EXCUSE ME! I'm eating here! Do YOU mind?" Yet I drive my truck and they scatter. Part of it is I think they hear the noise coming from a greater distance AND it moves slower. I think sometimes the paces of the approaching sound is important. The other thing is like was mentioned is many times it's simply a sound or smell that isn't associated with danger. I have deer in the barn lot in the fall when the grain dryer is HOWLING and yet the deer leave tracks not 10 yards from it as they are there for the spilled grain in the night. I have also seen deer bed within 30 yards of a gravel county road...as long as the traffic (it's minimal) stays at a steady speed they are not worried. You slow down to get a better look at them....they will stand and trot away. I used to tell my buddy that he had "bad luck" hunting my place because his diesel truck made so much noise pulling in every morning when he hunted....I was only partially kidding.
 
I always fill my feeders from using my tractor and I always drive my tractor over there when I am working...mine is open cab but all in all they do not associate it with danger. My ATV and Pickup are a totally different story and I drive the same speed as my tractor and they aren’t as noisy...
 
Poaching and shooting from vehicles. They know. Two seasons ago I had my shooter buck come in on a scrape I'd made few minutes before. I chose not to shoot so I could instead watch him work this new scrape. At bottom of mountain,quarter mile awasy, at neighbors house, dude pulls in with his truck and they are joking and carrying on , shutting doors, doing usual. Buck up till now was completely relaxed, came to a stand still looking and listening in that direction for few minutes, became adjatated and soon took off as if those guys were beside him. He knew cars,people could be trouble. Funny thing tho I shot him couple wks later as I was taking piss from stand with my weiner hanging free. lol.
Also one year due to some knee trouble, I had to ride the ATV to stand each time thru season instead of walking. I repeatedly rode by deer that just looked at me as I passed. I stopped once on lee side of hill 40 yds from my stand, crossed ridge, and had to wait while a dozen deer fed acorns beneath the stand. I rode up top ridge couple wks ago after 4 mo of hunting season to do some hinge work. Rode to within just a few yards of 15 does, fawns, and bucks bedded at my hinge cut edge soaking up the sun, before they finally ran off.
My point, they know what to fear, especially the mature ones.
 
J-bird made a good point, I think it has a lot to do with the pace that something approaches. If possible, deer will want to stay bedded down and hidden rather than reveal themselves and take off running


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Deer associate my tractor with good things and great it cheerfully with sign of gratitude and waving children.

Seriously , like others they are comfortable with the tractor and not too unusual to have them in a field while we are working it. Deer behavior tends to reflect what is common and routine in an area. My truck by my house which the girls see multiple times a day not a big problem. Show up in your truck not so comfortable.. Bucks are always more skittish than the does.
 
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