Camera Critters: Spots and Velvet: Summer Whitetails

Morning At The Meadow

There is nothing quite like an early summer morning at a backcountry meadow, with the song of birds filling the air. This provides a perfect backdrop against which to observe and photograph the whitetail deer.

The fawns are moving about more now and are seen more frequently, but are still not traveling with the does full time.

July 8th

The buck's antlers are growing rapidly and will reach their full potential soon. Later the tips will be more pointed, the antlers will harden, and the velvet will crack and fall off.

The following photos are of the same buck and show how much larger he grew in a period of slightly over a week.

June 27th

Notice the seventh point beginning to show at the tip of the right antler (It is just a small bump at the top of the wide part of the antler).

July 6th

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Thoughts On Pennsylvania Elk Hunting: An Interesting Comment

A Potential "Great" Pennsylvania Bull

On July 7th, I received a comment from Jim B , which is as follows:

"I enjoy looking at your photos and my wife and I enjoy visiting Benezette and photographing the elk. I have been a hunter for over 45 years (and I am deeply involved in the firearms industry), but what PA calls an Elk Hunting Season is anything but a hunting season. The elk in PA regardless of where you see them are acclimated to humans and have not developed a healthy fear of humans as the deer have.

I think your film did some good and we need to do more to convince the Game Commission that other means of population control is needed versus leading the public to believe that the elk season provides "elk hunting". I at least wish that the TV stations would avoid filming the "hunts" that certainly would cause those that do not hunt to just have more examples to share on why they do not believe in hunting."

I appreciate Jim's comment and wish to elaborate a bit.

I find that most of the people I personally know, that do object to the elk hunt as it is currently implemented, seem to agree with much or all of what Jim has to say. Many also come from a hunting background and most still hunt.

A prime example is a retired biologist and college professor who hunted Elk in Colorado, but opposes the Pennsylvania Hunt. He told me it was far different to hunt elk in a state with a large herd (247,090 after the 2005 season according to "Rocky Mountain Game and Fish"), than in one with a herd numbering considerably less than 1,000 animals. (an estimated 700-750 animals in October of 2007, according to a report on the PA. Game Commission Website). He felt the hunt was likely to damage the genetic makeup of the herd as there was extreme danger of removing too many of the biggest and best animals from such a small herd.

He related this to me as we stood on an Elk County hillside, with several bulls ranging about pursuing a cow in heat. This was after a few years of elk hunting. He pointed out that at a casual glance this seemed like a great situation, but if one looked closely, second tier bulls and not the prime animals of a few years before, were doing much of the breeding activity, as too many of the mature animals had been removed by the hunting season.

Jim B. touches on an interesting point concerning the videotaping of hunts. Those who do so should should look closely at the resulting footage, not just from the standpoint of a hunter, but they should ask, "does this portray a negative image to those not involved in the sport"? It is quite common for the participants to look only at the successful aspect of the hunt and miss seeing things that the more critical observer will take exception to. More importantly they should review the situation with a critical eye and make every effort to insure that any negative aspect does not occur again on future hunts.

One episode comes to mind in which a hunter fires several shots at a bull from what appears to be moderate range. Some shots miss and some hit. The bull runs some distance and collapses. After quite a bit of talking, and congratulatory backslapping, the hunter reloads his rifle and they approach the fallen elk. As they approach the dead bull, the camera cuts to a smaller bull standing in the area where the first animal fell and the hunter thinks that the bull he shot got back up. Luckily the guide knows it is a different animal and the hunter does not shoot. The animal stands there for quite some time while the hunting party approaches before running away.

I have heard comments from numerous persons who have seen this episode. We must bear in mind that it is possible that events were re-arranged somewhat in editing, or re-staged for the camera after the situation was resolved, but if the story is taken as presented, some come away with a less than positive view of the situation.

The most common reactions include the following points.

1. Would the hunter have shot the second elk by accident if an experienced guide had not been present?

2. Why was so much time spent before the party approached the fallen animal?

3. The behavior of the second elk is not exactly that of a wary animal and does not support the view that "Pennsylvania elk are as wild as any"!


I welcome comments from all points of view about our elk herd and elk hunting, as long as the discussion is respectful!

Changes In Pennsylvania Elk Management Policy: Part I

Mature Bull On Winslow Hill 2005: Viewed by thousands of elk watchers,
he was killed in Hunt Zone 2 on the first day of the November elk season.

In Pennsylvania, the hunting license year runs from the first of July to the end of the following June, so in most cases seasons are finalized by this time and one has a relatively clear picture of what is planned for the coming year.

The Elk regulations, and allocations are now published in the 2009 Pennsylvania Hunting And Trapping Digest, which is received when one purchases a license or may be viewed and downloaded from the Agency's website.

There are significant changes in this years' elk season. One addressed an issue, which was discussed in depth in "The Truth About Pennsylvania's Elk Herd" a 2 hr.-42 min. film, which discussed the recent history of Pennsylvania's Elk Herd along with giving the viewer a close-up view of the life cycle of the elk. The film closed with a section detailing many of the problems facing the herd today.

It was initially stated that hunting pressure would be directed at areas of elk-human conflict and away from the tourist areas on Winslow Hill.

Hunters were required to hunt in the management unit for which they drew tags and the number of tags issued per unit was fairly conservative, but management plans were disregarded when hunters who had difficulty locating elk in their assigned hunting area, were permitted to hunt in other management zones.

No Hunt Zone Denoted In Red
Note: Hand Generated Maps illustrate the general situation and are not accurate as to scale or small details of terrain and boundary lines.

The official Game Commission Harvest map that year shows that much of the kill, tightly encircled the No Hunt Zone.

2001 Elk Harvest Map-Source: The Pennsylvania Game Commission
Media Resource Center

This situation was bad enough, but the real blow fell in 2005 when hunt zones 1,2,3, and 10 were combined. While they were still listed as separate physical entities, the tags were issued with the stipulation that the hunter could utilize any of the four hunt zones. As a result, anyone who held a tag for any of the four combined hunt zones was able to hunt in Zone 2. In addition one had to consider the elk that were killed in Hunt Zone 8, as it too was home to many of the large bulls that visited the viewing areas on Winslow Hill.

2005 Elk Hunt Zones

In the 2008 season it was possible that 7 bulls and 16 cows could be killed in the combined Hunt Zones 1,2,3,10. In addition Hunt Zones 7 and 8 were combined with 5 bull and 7 antlerless tags being issued. This meant in theory that 12 bulls and 23 cows could be killed close to the No Hunt Zone. It is not likely that this actually happened and the kill was somewhat more dispersed, but the problem was that it did permit elk hunters to target many of the large bulls that frequented the viewing areas.

During the rut, bulls may travel long distances to visit the traditional mating grounds on Winslow Hill and then spend the rest of the year in other areas, but a substantial number do remain nearby. The film covers this aspect by showing several examples of large bulls that were acclimated to humans and would not have been killed had there been a somewhat larger no hunt zone.

According to the 2009-2010 Hunting Regulations, the combined areas have been eliminated so that 2 bulls and 7 antlerless elk may be taken in Hunt Zone 2, and 2 bulls and 6 antlerless elk may be taken in Hunt Zone 8.

A Portion Of Elk Hunt Zone 2

While this does not preserve as high of a proportion of mature bulls as the plan presented in "The Truth About Pennsylvania's Elk Herd", which advocated an enlarged No Hunt, or Population Control Hunt Only Zone, it is a great improvement over the combined zones. In brief instead of 12 bulls being possible targets in Zones 2 and 8, now a maximum of four will be targeted creating the potential for as many as 8 more bulls to survive near the major elk viewing areas.

Young Bull Elk Hunt Zone 2

Did "The Truth About Pennsylvania's Elk Herd" influence this decision? I don't know, but if it did, it makes the effort all worthwhile.

In spite of this positive action, there are still issues that need addressed, which I hope to cover in the future.

Camera Critters: Close And Personal With A Whitetail Fawn

On June 15th, I posted a close-up of a fawn before I left for a trip to Elk County. At that time I promised to give more details about this, but then of course photos from the Elk County trip were fresh on my mind and I have not told the story of the fawn. It seems that I am getting very good at promising more photos and information, about a subject and then moving on without addressing it in more detail.

I noticed that my favorite whitetail doe was still extremely pregnant when she visited the food plot on Saturday Morning June 13th. As I drove in the lane that evening I saw her go around the corner of an old house foundation in a "sneaking run". As she usually stands alert watching me arrive, or approaches the vehicle, I was almost certain that the long expected event had occurred.

I got on watch by the food plot and soon she arrived. Yes, her flanks were now sunken, indicating that she had given birth.

Sunken flanks: Abdomen still looks enlarged, but that is from stretching

I realized that the fawn was probably near the old house foundation so I took the camcorder on the tripod and the 30-D with 70-200mm 2.8 lens and went in search of it. I ordinarily would not recommend this course of action, but this is a very unique situation. These deer are completely acclimated to me and were not frightened by any of what is described here. In fact this particular doe will often fall in with me when I am walking in the area and follow to the side or slightly behind me. In this instance she soon followed me, a short distance behind, stopping to browse.


I stood still for a time when I reached the foundation and then was distracted by two bucks passing by and photographed them. When I looked back the doe was gone, but soon I noticed her walking a roadway some distance away. I followed at quite a distance. Soon she went into the woods and then doubled back toward the foundation. I slowly retraced my steps and started in the lane on foot. The doe walked into the lane and then looked back into the woodland. I positioned the video camera and began filming. Then the moment I had been waiting for arrived-the fawn stepped from the bushes, and the doe began grooming and nursing it.

I See The Fawn At Last

I decided to drop the tripod as low to the ground as possible to get a different perspective and suddenly the fawn spied me and began staggering toward me. A tripod was too unwieldy for this, so I dismounted the camcorder from it and engaged the image stabilization. Suddenly the fawn was under the tripod and then it was nuzzling my knee. At one point in time I rested the rear of the camcorder on the ground and fired up at the fawn with the lens on extreme wide angle. At times I placed the camcorder of the ground and took stills with the 17-40mm, but the light was so low that it was difficult to get sharp photos.

This Is Close: probably 2-3'

At one point the young animal even sniffed the camcorders' microphone.

The Young Are Inquisitive

In time the fawn rejoined the doe and they went into the nearby woodland where they interacted for quite some time, before it bedded down in a thicket.

Fawn In Woods

Hiding From Predators

It is likely that this doe has two fawns, but only time will tell. The fawns should start traveling with the doe during July and then one gets a better handle as to what actually occurred during the past birthing season.

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