This post lays out the methodology, facts, and figures from running a camera survey on my property this past hunting season. The cam survey started out with 16 trail cameras put out between Oct. 9 thru Oct 13. They were checked in the beginning too much,started out with mostly daytime activity and quickly went to more night time activity. In one camera site which was close to a neighbor property the pressure of the neighbors hunting turned the deer mostly nocturnal in three to five days or so. I couldn't do anything about what neighbors on their property were doing but I could change my behavior and did by ceasing checking cams in early November unless I was walking by one of course. Starting 11/13, fifteen additional trail cams were added which brought the total #of cams to 31(two Reconyx and 29 Browning cameras-25-Strike Force and four black flash models). The cameras were mostly set at 3 pics per detection except for a couple of cameras that looked like special spots with the deer breeding sequence being one of those. Locations for the cameras were mostly high impact trails within the bedding areas with some in the woods behind food plots. A few were actually pointing at the beds and two were in the woods food plots of less than 1/4 acre each. A couple were also placed on rubbed trees that were absolutely shredded. Cameras were not checked from 11/15 thru their pull dates which were December 19 and 20. Six Plotwatchers were placed out for the season, all on food plots but those cards have not been reviewed yet so are not apart of this study or post.
The total # of pictures taken with the 31 trail cams was just shy of 40,000. Whittling them down to only one picture for each deer sighting (some deer hung around and got their pictures taken twenty times in a row and all were whittled down to one) the total # of whittled down pics was 2,671 with 1828 being daytime pics and 843 being nighttime pics. To determine the # of different deer in the pictures we started with the bucks 2 1/2 years old and up.The answer was 33. The #of 1 1/2 year old bucks were then determined to be 12. I discussed those numbers with Steve Heerkens, the state wildlife biologist for this area, Paul Curtis from Cornell that conducts many camera surveys and is currently doing a study of deer at Fort Drum which is only twenty-five miles from here and also with John Hammer who started the NY Yates County deer management co-operative and does surveys in his area of NY. After hearing their experiences I decided to not include those bucks that gave me only three pics or less total because they were likely travelers that did not spend much time on this property. Thus after adjusting for that and subtracting the two bucks harvested last season, I went with the total # of bucks heavily using the property to be 30 with 8 being 1 1/2 years old and 22 being 2 1/2 and up. This is the most important number in a survey as everything else is keyed off of that. The 30 bucks had their pics taken in 637 events or 21.23 pic events per buck.
Doe events came in at 1288. Dividing that by 21.23 (assuming doe pics were taken at the same rate per doe as bucks) gave us 60 does regularly using the property.
Fawn with buck and doe fawn combined came in at 1789 fawns divided by 21.23 gave us the number of fawns at 84. Dividing fawns by does 84 by 60 equaled 1.4 gave us our fawn recruitment rate. I asked Paul about the recruitment rate number being high and he agreed it was high but was reasonably in line with his study at Fort Drum.
And of course the buck to doe ratio at 30 bucks to 60 does is exactly 1 to 2.
The total deer on the property using it regularly came out to 30 bucks, 60 does and 84 fawns or 174 deer. This is many, many times what the average for the area is per square mile and this is only 605 acres, 35 short of a square mile. Another call to Steve and when I told him the shape of the property at about 1/2 mile wide by two miles long the numbers made sense because the property would likely contain deer from parts of the five square miles abutting it. The habitat and hunting pressure on the neighboring properties is poor and high pressured compared to this property so the high amount of deer spending time on this property made sense even though it was many times that of the area average.
Will this camera study help me better manage the deer population,help grow more older bucks, point out potential weak spots in the habitat and deer management efforts, and show us how to better hunt this property and when to hunt this property? The answer is a resounding yes. It took many days to sort thru all of the pictures and determine the number of different bucks as well as the number of different sightings. It was even like work at times but I'm glad to have done it and do plan to do it again next year.
In states where baiting is allowed current thinking is that camera surveys can be accomplished in 7 to 10 days max. In states like NY where no baiting or feeding is allowed current thinking is it takes a minimum of 6 to 7 weeks to conduct the survey. It is not a perfect science for sure but it is another tool in the bucket to provide intel to help us manage our properties and the deer using them.
And are deer afraid of the cams?
Absolutely sometimes and absolutely not at others. Here is a pic of Big Ten. He was walking into the camera zone and stopped just on the edge of the detection area.That was it. He evidently backed up before five seconds were up so he wouldn't be flashed again. In other instances he acted like a willing model.
This was a nighttime spot only.It is located about 50 yards off of our lawn. We see literally hundreds of deer there every year day and night but we have never seen him there other than on camera.
Oh and those cams placed on the absolutely shredded tree rubs produced the absolute least amount of buck or doe activity. Never would have guessed that.
I want to thank John, Paul and Steve for sharing their knowledge and experience with me and taking the time to discuss my trail cam survey with me. You each helped me more than you will ever know. And as a side note Paul is monitoring young buck dispersal from Fort Drum so if anyone gets a pic of a radio collared deer be sure to let Paul know thru the study website even if you get the picture 150 miles away, it could still be from Fort Drum. The site is
www.fortdrumdeer.org
