By Nick Simonson

Hit by a lack of habitat in the east and a resurgence of epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD) in the west, North Dakota’s whitetail herd is headed into an important season – the rut.  While historically hunters have pointed to a number of factors that set the whitetail deer’s breeding season off – including moon phase and a sharp drop in temperature – the real reason for the rut is much more biological according to North Dakota Game & Fish Department (NDG&F) Big Game Biologist Jason Smith.

“The reality is it’s more or less related to the daylight; photoperiod is what really triggers the hormones in the deer and the peak of the breeding season.  It seems like deer like to move a lot more when it’s cooler, and that’s more just an observation, I think, more than the norm. It’s more related to the biology of the deer, and that’s related to the photoperiod, and that all ties back into the timing of the breeding, which then correlates with the timing of the birth of fawns on the landscape,” Smith details of the science behind the rut and the whitetails’ calendar.

As the amount of daylight lessens in the northern hemisphere with winter’s approach, hormones in deer and other animals change.  For some, such as bears, hibernation is the result.  As the photoperiod shrinks for deer, however, that ramps up the urge in bucks to breed with mature does and they enter into the rut phase of their year, and they conversely become more active.  This is often seen in the form of bucks patrolling scrape lines where the deer leave scents from their urine and glands on their legs in the dirt, and from around their nose, when they rub their muzzles on overhanging branches near the area of open dirt they make with their hooves.  Does too mark these spots, letting bucks know they are ready to breed.

Smith suggests that a successful breeding period, combined with lowered tags and conservative measures on whitetail deer put into place halfway through the archery season following the EHD outbreak, will be critical in helping the limited population of whitetails in North Dakota recover from the trough they’ve been in, since the hard winter of 2021-22 reduced their numbers by an estimated 50 percent or more in some localized areas. It will also provide more activity from a limited number of animals currently on the landscape, increasing hunters’ odds a bit.

“I would say as far as the deer population goes, and the breeding season, we’re quickly approaching the peak of that. The rut will definitely be in full swing when people hit the field here on Friday the sixth and the weekend.  I guess those that are lucky to have a tag should find a good time out there in the field,” Smith states of the upcoming season.

The rut also causes whitetail bucks – a normally wary creature with heightened senses of smell, sight and hearing – to get a bit more careless as they search for a doe to breed with.  It also triggers them to become more active in the daylight hours as does too have a limited time of fertility based on their hormones and biology during this phase which is often associated with the month of November in the latitudes of the northern plains. It is during these times of distraction that hunters may not only come into contact with bucks more often, but they may see new bucks venturing into their hunting areas and find them more receptive to artificial buck grunts and doe bleats, turning to these calls to bring active, cruising bucks into shooting range.

The North Dakota firearms deer season opens at noon on Fri. Nov. 6 and runs for 16 and a half days, closing on Sun. Nov. 22.  Hunting hours run from one half hour before sunrise to one half hour after sunset each day. This year approximately 39,000 firearms deer tags were issued to hunters in North Dakota, a more than fifty-year low, with about 12,000 of those awarded as gratis tags to landowners in the state. More information on whitetail deer and the 2027 firearms deer hunting season can be found at gf.nd.gov/hunting/big-game.

Simonson is the lead writer and editor of Dakota Edge Outdoors.

Featured Photo. Ready for Rut.  A large whitetail buck gets caught in daylight hours on a trail camera along the Sheyenne River valley in eastern North Dakota. Simonson