COUES MOVEMENT

[TREESTANDMAN]

Time to start another coues biology topic. I'm curious to know what your opinions are on a bucks range? I have been told that typically coues bucks have a very small home range and that only during the rut do they venture out of that range in search of does. Would most of you agree that this is true or do any of you think coues bucks will change their home ranges in adapting to drought, lack of food, water shortages, etc? I do not have enough hunting experience to provide a valid opinon on this yet but I'm sure some of the veterans here could provide some good insight.?

[couesdiehard]

TREESTANDMAN;

I don't pretend to have the answer either. I believe that generally, they are homebodies and their "sky-island" homes encourage this behavior. When drought or something makes survival tough in their home-range I believe they will seek greener pastures. I think they will move on if a herd is exceeding it's capacity also and coues start to spread out to more nominal areas. I think these moves are more or less to find new home ranges though, not so much wandering or migrating. Let's not forget coues deer are found in decent numbers from just above sea-level in Sonora to over 10,000 feet high in the Pinalenos. They are pretty adaptive.

Lee

[25-06]

I don't know for sure, but i have been told time and time again that most coues will live and die within a 5 square mile area?

[Guest Ernesto C]

Hey 25-06,I know the answer of your question but let me see if CHD will give me permission to answer your question.

 

Ernesto C.

[25-06]

Good thinking Ernesto C, You are right. Maybe we should let him answer this one

[Benbrown]

Back when I was a working deer biologist, I radiotracked white-tailed deer in several areas of Texas, in central Kansas and in Nebraska. The conventional wisdom was pretty much correct: bucks had larger home ranges than does (some of which lived on a couple hundred acres over the life or their transmitters). We always had a few dominant bucks that showed up during the rut that no one had ever seen before and a few of our dominant radio-collared bucks would disappear for several days to a couple of weeks toward the end of the rut.

 

My experience with Coues deer on the ranch that I managed in New Mexico reflected exactly the same sorts of behavior: we saw the same bucks in the same places at almost exactly the same time year after year. Some of the Coues bucks had relatively large home ranges (say perimeters encompassing 8-12 square miles), but they tended to use only very small parts of these areas, moving from one to another but not spending much time in between. If you added up the areas that were actually used, and not just traveled through, you would end up with a home range not too different from that of a Texas or Kansas whitetail.

 

One behavior that cropped up early on was what we called "trips". Even in does with relatively small home ranges, you would see an animal take off several times each year and make relatively long "trips" outside the home range. These did not last more than a few days at the most and often lasted only a day or two.

 

On the San Pedro Ranch in Dimmit County, Texas, we experienced a severe drought and a couple of the windmills at which deer watered went dry. Those deer shifted their home ranges to include water sources up to six miles away in the extreme cases. How did they know where there might be other water? We always surmised that they learned about it on these "trips".

 

Since I came to New Mexico, I have seen Coues deer leave a mountain range after an extensive wildifire top-killed many of the shrubs. As the current drought took hold and dried up both wet-weather and perennial water sources, this apparently kept them from coming back, despite some recovery in the habitat. We also saw whitetails move down out of the mountains to the lower elevation valleys and foot hills that we thought of as classic mule deer habitat, apparently because they did not like living with the burgeoning populations of mountain lions in the high country.

 

As the drought got worse, perennial water sources became fewer, and the Coues deer moved even lower. I had three does that dropped and raised fawns in the cienega in front of my house the last three years that I lived there. They never went back up in the mountains and were still living there when I left the ranch in December of 2004.

 

I have sat on high outcrops and ridges and watched Coues bucks evade hunters without ever traveling more than a few hundred yards. I have also seen bucks that were spooked, apparently leave the country, only to find them right back in the same area after a day or two.

 

I think that Coues have the basic whitetail instincts: they find limited areas that meet their needs for food, cover and water without having to travel long distances each day and spend their time in these limited areas, even though they may be quite a distance apart. They are actually using only a small fraction of what we might define as "home range" based on a polygon that "connects the dots" at the perimeter of their movements.

 

Ben

[Tonto]

Good topic Treestandman, and if it is alright with CHD, I've got a reply. This year I found whitetail sheds in places I have frequently hunted for quail most of my life and only seen muleys all these years. At first I figured the willow fire had forced them to expand their range, but then I found chalks as well.

 

Besides predators pressure, I really think coues will move with the quality and quantity of browse. What range in miles, depends on the country I think, we've been seeing coues down low on Roosevelt, not related to the Willow fire at all. To me, that's historically muley habitat. I'm no wildlife biologist, but that's my 2 cents.

[azpackhorse]

Last year I spent alot of time over a 6 month period prior to my hunt in an area I had planned on hunting, videoing coues. I consistantly video taped many of the same bucks in a 2 or 3 mile area. My buddy's son had the same hunt except in October and we tried to get him on a buck that I had taped in July or August, I knew it was one of the bucks I had video'd because of a distinctive antler characteristic. I ended up taking the very same buck in November.

They seemed to have stayed in the same area for the most part, just altering thier behavior to the increasing pressure by hunters, becoming more nocternal and using brushy bottoms to move from feeding areas to bedding areas.

It is my belief that unless something catastrophic happens, fire, encroachment,etc, that for the most part the home range seemed(in this case anyway) to be around a 2 or 3 mile radius. I also noticed that the bucks changed up thier routine more so than does, based on the assumption that the does I was observing were the same.

Later in the year (december,January) in the same area it seemed to get real crazy with deer running all over the place, it was difficult to keep track of who was who in the zoo.

[wetmule]

Great topic T.S.M., and great responses guys with some very informative data collected by experienced CW members, keep it coming.

[TAM]

With the exception of the pre rut and rut, I've always believed that a big mature bucks home range could be better described in mere acres rather than miles. I know they will move for food and water as needed, but I don't think they cover much country. I agree with the previous posts about their home range being five miles give or take, but I think that takes in to account the rut when they tend to move about much more often. I tend to believe that throughout most of the year they stay locked into an area much, much smaller than that as long as there is food, water, and cover.

[CouesWhitetail]

Research in the Santa Ritas and other locations in AZ found that does had a home ranges from about 0.73 sq miles to 2 sq miles. Bucks used 1.7 to 4.0 sq miles. The smaller numbers represent the core areas they use, and the larger being areas travelled to infrequently. Bucks use that larger home range to find females during the rut. They travel from one doe area to another searching for receptive does.

 

Interesting info Benbrown on your research. Thanks for sharing it. I saw a doe on a "trip" once. She was way up in some rocks in bighorn sheep country. I watched her for quite awhile that morning and she would go up and down in the rocks searching for something. I couldn't believe where she went, seemed very dangerous in terms of lion attack and accidental falling. Usually when I watch deer they seem to know exactly where they are and where they want to be. This deer seemed to be exploring and searching (I believe for water pockets in the rocks). There was a very dependable spring not far from her which would have been easier and safer for her to go to. But she seemed totally focused on searching out new areas.

 

Amanda

[TREESTANDMAN]

Very good posts everyone! This is valuable information. Thankyou Ben Brown and Amanda for sharing the survey findings and everyone else for their opinions.

[az4life]

I agree, this is a great topic. When I have scouted an area and in a few regular areas I hunt, there seem to be a few spots that almost always have does in them. Like it is their "Home". Findings of .073 miles that Amanda mentioned definitley fit in with what I have seen.

 

As far as bucks home range, I think we all know if they are in a spot one time, it is only a matter of time till they are back. That is one reason why we use trail cams and set up in the same places frequently.

 

Great information!

 

thanks

[ultramag]

great topic.ive have been told that coues home range were from 3500 ft in elevation and above.but have seen coues around roosevelt lake a-cross rd.but that is only about 2500ft.now my question. why are there not more coues high on the rim?i know there is some but not that many,is the elk the reason?

[billrquimby]

I've always believed that Coues deer bucks had favorite bedding areas. However, if those places were invaded by humans, the bucks would run into the flats to escape them.

 

When we still could buy tags at sporting goods stores and go hunting any deer species we wanted I used to see whitetails way out on the desert flats near what now are the pecan groves east of I-19 while hunting mule deer there. It was my impression that they had left the higher country because of hunting pressure. I could have been wrong, but I just couldn't see whitetails living year around there.

 

I also saw a whitetail buck in mule deer country in the flats below the Chiricahuas near Rodeo N.M., as well as a whitetail doe in the Black Hills quail country northwest of Oracle. I seriously doubt that they stayed in those places very long.

 

I also believe there are places (such as below certain rimrock cliffs and the heads of certain canyons on open hillsides) where the largest (oldest?) bucks hung out. Just like largemouth bass "honey holes", we used to go back year after year and find good bucks in exactly the same places. As far as I know, there have been no studies about Coues deer and their bedding areas.

 

bill quimby