Landowners and deer managers want to grow and produce big whitetail bucks—and hunters want to shoot them. If no one wanted to shoot them, then why would we put so much time and effort into deer management operations? The truth is that white-tailed deer represent THE big game animal of the majority of US hunters. But big bucks are not just susceptible to hunters, they can also be affected, even killed, by testosterone poisoning. So what is testosterone poisoning in deer, you ask?
Whitetail bucks go through many changes on an annual basis. Bucks experience antler growth, then those same antlers fall off. Bucks live happily in harmony during the summer, but then they fight to the death in the fall. Most of the major events in a buck’s life occur because of a single hormone, testosterone. For the most part, testosterone simply makes bucks more aggressive. Continue reading Whitetail Deer Rut: Testosterone Poisoning of Bucks