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The White-tailed Deer
Buck in the woods
Published: Oct 14, 2024, 6:14 PM

White-tailed deer popularity is supreme.  Hunters, viewers, photographers, and naturalists automatically accept this without thought.

This mammal has been a Wisconsin icon since being tied to hunting culture and recreational activities.  The deer, Wisconsin’s state wildlife animal, is found throughout the state due in part to its adaptability to a variety of habitats and extremes.

Hunters are drawn from every state, and some foreign countries, to get a glimpse of this majestic animal in its developing winter coat and patches, streaks and blotches of white. 

All year the animal is celebrated, viewed, photographed, and its venison consumed.

The coat is a color that blends into fall’s surrounding habitat better than at any other season, which makes this insulating blanket hold a viewer’s eyes.  

It might be more the animal’s gestalt of putting together everything including a sleek animal, with ears rotating like radar devices and a white flag as it walks, trots, or gallops away.  Together the whitetail can hold a photographer, hunter, or viewer speechless, even action-less, while the prize waves goodbye with a white tail and the animal blends into the horizon.

During autumn the antlers, rarely on a doe, add immeasurably to the animal’s totality.

The buck’s antlers no doubt draw on some of the 600,000 to come here to see the bucks and dream of Jim Jordan’s 206 5/8, 10-point animal killed in 1914 in Burnett County, Wisconsin.  That deer still tops all typical antler racks measured from Wisconsin but no longer the world because in 1993 when Milo Hanson shot a 14-point whitetail in Biggar, Saskatchewan, Canada, scoring 213 5/8 inches, 7-1/2 inches greater than the Jordan buck shot 79 years earlier.  

Muskrat eating
This pond muskrat found no problem eating muliflora fruits
Other antlers are imperfect to a point of being dubbed non-typical, when in fact they are here by the thousands.  One might then say that is enough to make them typical, rather than non-typical.

When growing, beginning in late April, antlers add to, not subtract from, a deer’s appearance.  A velvet covering makes the diameter twice what it will become then rubbed clean, tearing samplings and tangling with other antlers to help an animal be dominant or send him into another territory to fight another day.

As guessed, antlers become tangled during these fights and one or both animals may perish.  Hunters may go to great length to assist separating the locked antlers when moments earlier this predator was ready to raise a rifle and kill.

Doe, fawn, and buck are the names applied to the members of a herd, but the herd can be different depending on the calendar.  Bachelor bucks are herds in summer.  Loners are does when they separate before birthing a fawn, or twins.  

Cute and a plethora of kind terms apply to the fawn when most births occur in late May.

A Wisconsin deer’s anatomy may surprise many hunters.  The animal has a stomach with four compartments, not four stomachs.  There are 20 teeth on the bottom jaw, 12 above.

Photoperiod and hormones control many of the changes during a deer’s year.

While cuts of meat are similar to beef, the meat is venison,  

Big bucks are not all antlered.  Deer contribute much of the hunting money spent in Wisconsin and are typically the “cash cow” for support of the general hunting.

No other wild land animal has a benefit close to what the whitetail does, much of which is due to a big, brown, beautiful animal that starts its life after birth consuming milk.

Earlier this month, during the two-day youth hunt 7,111 deer were registered including 3,676 bucks and 3,135 antlerless animals.  To date, 23,035 deer have been registered, including those taken by young hunters.

Wild turkey hunters have accounted for 1,227 registrations this fall since the season opened September 14.  Zones 1-5 remain open continuously until January 2, 2025.  Bonus authorizations continue to be available in several zones and can be purchased at any time until the season closes.

A wandering, probably originating from the Jackson County gang, bull elk has been spotted most recently in Lafayette County after first being reported in Richland County and then Iowa County.  This bull is likely looking for cow elk.

A very limited number, 12, tags were issued, eight for the Clam Lake gang and four for the animals in Jackson County.  A split season opened October 12, closing November 10 and then reopening December 12 for those 12 lucky hunters.  No one else change hunt or shoot an elk in Wisconsin.

Ammunition for deer and shotshells is already somewhat scarce in some locations, so plan accordingly, according to Doug Williams, at D W Sports Center in Portage.

Autumn sights and sound continue to appear and develop, so catch those whenever you can. 


Contact Jerry Davis, a freelance writer, at sivadjam@mhtc.net or  608.924.1112.
Prescribed burns (maintain), improve (wildlife, recreation) habitats
Prairie Fires
While appearing completely destructive, early prairie fires remove above ground plant material and do not kill root systems of perennial plants.
Jerry Davis, Columnist
Published: Apr 17, 2025, 10:44 AM

Prairie and savanna prescribed fires can be good trouble if they are carefully timed and controlled.  Their purpose is to help keep prairies as grasslands and prevent or at least slow succession toward more forested habitats.

Prairie is a word used for these grasslands, coming from the French word meaning meadow.  Half the upland prairie plants are usually grasses and the other half are forbs, non-grass herbs.  Deer and turkeys use these areas, pheasants love them particularly if there are crops nearby.  Shed antlers and a few destroyed bird nests attest to the use by these animals after burns. 

Aldo Leopold, in his 1949 A Sand County Almanac wrote of compass plants tickling the bellies of buffalos as they fed in grasslands.  These days it is a much smaller ungulate, the white-tailed deer, using these prairies in the Midwest.

In general, spring prairie fires get rid of dead stems and leaves of prairie plants. Some invasive species and most trees and shrubs including raspberry and blackberry brambles are set back or killed.

In springtime, all the living parts of prairie grasses and forbs are underground and protected from fire’s quick flame heat.  A bur oak’s thick, corky bark protects the tree’s stems so once this oak begins growing it usually survives a spring fire.

Safety, planning, and permits are necessary considerations before jumping into prescribed burns.  Neighbors accumulate around prairie burns; they are eager to lend a hand, a leaf blower, and a watchful eye.  In addition to controlled excitement and controlled danger, prairie fires provide a combination of sights, sounds, intense heat, flame cones and colors and an immediate warming found nowhere else in April.  It’s like a July noon when we get close.  But don’t wait too long on the calendar or new shoots will be harmed, more nesting will be disrupted and prairie plants will be harmed.  Late fall burns may be an option then.

Numerous mounds and depressions show in the terrain as soon as the flames become ash, and do animal skeletons and white spent deer antlers.  Turkeys flock to the blackened landscape, even wood ducks don’t seem to mind the black ash, which remains for but a few days before green dominates all.

Young turkey hunters already had their special season, some on prairies, and now the first turkey season, Period A, has begun.  This period is followed by five additional periods, all Wednesday through Tuesday.

Bonus permits, aka authorizations, remain to be purchased for two of the last hunting periods, so for more recreation and excitement buy into the extra hunting opportunities regardless of whether or not a bird is in the freezer or has been consumed.

Checking for possible morel mushroom locations is now prime.  Look for dead elm trees, old apple orchards and a number of other locations.  Scarlet cup mushrooms are a bright clue that morels will soon appear.  False morels appearing are another clue.

After three poor morel hunting years, set your expectations accordingly, but morels often surprise or disappoint gatherers. 

In the end it is often a dead elm tree, but with some bark hanging being the best bet.  Not all morels appear at the same time so keep checking tried and past productive locations.

With rain and warmth, all sorts of “blooming birthdays” are about to occur.  Garden, lawn, field, and forest have a lot in store.  Asparagus shoots have been reported.  Forsythia is blooming; pasque flowers are, too.  Sometimes a green compass plant shoot is as exciting to see as a new bloom or cone.  

Check for those tiny tree flowers if you nose hasn’t already made you aware of the pollen these wind-pollinated plants are releasing.

One experience could be finding an evergreen red cedar tree that is releasing pollen grains in pulses early in the morning when the temperature reaches a critical point and the pollen cones open and clouds of pollen takes to the breezes.  Some will land on the seed cones on a different individual red cedar tree beginning the development of a bright blue seed cone that smells of gin.

Take note of what is occurring such as wild gooseberries blooming and attracting bumblebees just when the first morels begin to show. It’s all about timing, seeing one event suggesting and reminding of another.