What is The Rut?

Scientifically speaking the term The Rut refers to the time-frame when a male deer (of any species) is capable of breeding, which is generally accepted as from the time when a male sheds the velvet on its antlers in late summer or early fall, to the time it drops its antlers in winter or early spring; or as the time from when the first female comes into estrous, to the time when most of the females no longer come into estrous.

In tropical areas some deer species may have males in hard antler, and be capable of breeding, throughout the entire year, because the females are capable of breeding throughout the year. In North America the white-tailed deer rut does not usually begin before August, nor does it last longer than late February or early March.

The white-tailed deer rut is generally divided into several different phases, which coincide with particular activities of the breeding season. In white-tailed deer these activities include rubbing, scraping and breeding, each of which has one or more peaks throughout he breeding season.

Unfortunately, the terms The Rut, Peak Rut and Peak of the Rut are often used interchangeably by both outdoor writers/speakers/authors and hunters. The truth of the matter is the term The Rut applies to the entire length of the breeding season, and the terms Peak Rut and Peak of the Rut apply only to the one-week time-frame when peak breeding actually occurs. Several different studies show that rarely are more than 30 percent of the does in any area bred during any one week. So, the majority of the does (over 50 percent) are probably bred over a three to four week time frame; this is a much longer rut than many hunters realize.

Generally speaking the farther south the deer are, the earlier they can begin to breed and the later they can continue to breed, because the warmer climate allows the fawns to be born and survive throughout most of the year. Therefore, southern deer often have medium to long breeding season lengths, but the deer may not have noticeable peaks in breeding activity, because very few does are in estrous during the same weeks; and the bucks are not extremely active as they search for, chase, tend and breed the few does that are in estrous. Since there may not be a lot of does in estrous at the same time, the bucks can breed at their leisure, which results in much of the searching, chasing, tending and actual breeding occurring during the night. Consequently this may led to very few actual fights for breeding rights. The result is there is often not a noticeable rut.

In contrast the farther north the deer are, the later they begin to breed, and they can't continue to breed for very long, because fawns born too late the next year would not survive the fall and winter. Therefore, northern deer generally begin breeding later than southern deer, and they have shorter breeding seasons, but often with very noticeable peak breeding activity, because a large of number does are in estrous within the same few weeks, and the bucks are actively searching, chasing, tending and breeding does, even during daylight hours. This may lead to frequent fights for breeding rights. This often leads to a very noticeable rut.

The rut phases also do not coincide with particular months, because in many cases the different phases or activities of the rut, such as rubbing, scraping and breeding, overlap each other, and the different rut phases may begin during one month, and continue into the next month. But, generally speaking (which is all that these differences in the breeding seasons of white-tailed deer will allow me), we can say that particular breeding-related activities occur during particular months of the year. This is particularly true for deer above the 40th parallel. For instance, in the northern states and Canada, rubbing and scraping generally begins from the end of August to the first part of September. And peak breeding in most of these same areas occurs in November, often in mid-November.

This article is an excerpt from the book Hunting The Whitetail Rut Phases, by T.R. Michels available in the Trinity Mountain Outdoor Products catalog.