deer comming to the coyote call

huntingal

huntingal

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Just wondering if anyone knows why deer are interested in distress sounds. Last year I had a couple of little bucks come clear across a field to investigate the dieing rabbit I was playing. Then, last week I got a new doe distress call, so after I decided one of my stands was a bust I put it in to play with it. In about five minutes I heard the typical thump, thump of a mule deer comming my way. Sure enough this doe comes right to where I was sitting and homes in on my decoy. She brings with her last years fawn and a small buck who were really not interested at all. I kept playing the call figuring that she would run off but it only made her more agitated and she came closer. She hung around till she finnaly got my scent (I guess) then trotted off.
Is it just curiosity or something else that would bring a prey animal to the dieing sounds of other critters?
 
Does a dying rabbit call sound kinda like a fawn in distress call? I've heard of hunters using this during doe only days and shooting what shows up first, predators or does.
 
Dying rabbit shouldn't sound like fawn distress. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif I called a whitetail doe with Canine Pup Distress #2 on my FX3 this year! That surprised me. I've called deer with fawn distress sounds before, but never canine sounds. Curiousity is a strong draw.
 
I have deer come in pretty often when calling. Once when I was using a rabbit distress, I had a young doe come in to investigate. She was upwind of me and did not see me. All of a sudden, she froze, put her nose in the air and looked back where she came from and bolted. I didn't realize this until later, but I think it might have been a coyote that scared her. I never did see a coyote though.
 
In WY I was calling near the top of a valley side, last 40 minutes of the day. I was rabbit screaming, after 30 minutes or so it was almost dark, I decided to see if the yotes would answer a lone howl. No coyotes answered, but the 6-7 mule deer does on the other side of the valley, 5/8th of a mile away looked at me for the first time. The lead doe started to hop, hop, and all of them followed her straight to a spot down wind of me, about 150-200 yds away. She stopped and looked at my lump and stood there for a good while. I figured she was wondering where in the heck is that coyote, why do I smell that stinky human. It looked to me like she was looking for some coyote behind to kick. The Bill Austin calls I use ( on the deer bleat) sound like a lower bleat like a deer. When I rabbit scream it is a higher shorter sound but still a little like the deer in distress. Some of the calling videos I own or watched have a doe come in and chase the yote off. I have had a couple come in myself.T.20
 
Have had many mule deer and blacktail does come to a jack rabbit distress call, and a few whitetail does come to it. The whitetails does came in only in spring when I was calling bear, and tended to be more agitated, while the blacktail and mule deer seem to come year round. Make that a ditto to Rich Cronk's comment.

On three occasions I’ve had cow elk, one time a whole herd, come in to the jack rabbit distress sound, in spring.

Buck response to jack rabbit distress calls has been very limited for me. A blacktail spike stood up and watched me for 15 minutes from a high point about 100 yards away. It looked like that it simply stood from its bed in brush but it may have approached to that point

A much more common response from whitetails in the Fall has been to bolt in apparent terror from the sound of the jack rabbit distress, and that has included bucks and does. Several times I did not know the deer was there until I called and saw it bolt from cover in a run.

I’ve listened to a mule deer spotted fawn cry out in startled fear, and it is virtually indistinguishable from a jackrabbit distress call, to my ear. By fall, I have watched and listened to a mule deer fawn of the year making a sound almost exactly like a house cat meowing. I think it was looking for its mother.

I have used some doe in heat calls successfully on bucks, and a main difference in sound from the rabbit distress is the melody played rather than the instrument and tones. (As another example of that, I’ve used turkey and elk diaphragm calls inside my mouth to successfully call moose).

I suspect that some of our differences in observation are individual ways that we “play” similar calls, and so unwittingly are sending different messages. I.e. one hunter may never see a doe approach a rabbit distress call and another may call many with the same call, due to differences in how they “play” the call. Also, animals differ a lot from one individual to another in how they execute a particular call, as anyone knows who has listened to live elk bugling.
 
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I had a Doe come to my distress calls in the fall, she didn't really come in hard, she just wandered in while noseing around, but she could clearly hear my call as she was only about 30 feet from me. After she came in and stopped I barked at her with a howler she didn't move, then I stood up, she didnt move she just looked at me with that confused look to her. I sat down and grabbed my camera then stood back up and took a photo. after that she just walked off like I wasn't even there, I think she was curious and couldn't figure out what I was...
 
I had a decent 8-pointer come in to a dying rabbit call. He may have just been curious, but he seemed awfully agitated. He ran back and forth, snorted. Looked awfully mad to me. Ready for a fight. Maybe he was a victim of species confusion?
 
Yep, had mulies come in to investigate. Mostly always does. What bugs me though, is when you get set up in what you think is a really good spot, and a herd of about 15 cattle show up out of nowhere. And have you on point. And won't leave. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif
 
I recently went out on my parents porch on the top of the mountain and let off a howl just for the heck of it. From out of no where the neighbors work horse came charging over the hill looking very agitated. He stomped around looking for the yote that invaded his field. Made me glad that I wasn't standing across the fence.
 
Oddly enough, I've called up coyote with a deer call. I was using a set of rattling sticks while hunting in Mason TX and was bored and kind of playing around (gimmie a break, I was 15 yrs. old) and the yote came out of a blind draw and sat down 40yds. away looking around for the fight. No fight, just me and viola' I got lucky and busted her as she was leaving. Strange but cool for a bored 15 yr. old.
Trashcan
 
my guess why deer come in to the distress sounds is number 1 curosity, and number 2 it attacts predators, say if its a dieing rabbit im sure a deer can paw it 2 death to stop the chance of a predator approach... just my two cents
 
Twice this weekend I had cow elk come in to my calls. Both times I started with howls and then went to adult coyote in distress.
 
I've sometimes seen a very agitated Blacktail doe response to mouth calls, making either rabbit or fawn type sounds, even calling quite close a doe with spotted fawns a couple of years ago June. I'm thinking about this again because I had one with fresh twins in my drive just out my door a couple of days ago, interested in luring them close to the camera...

Last winter, I called back a jumped doe and yearling with my fawn imitation on a Magnum Crit R Call. She stomped and snorted snot, she was so mad.

I've also seen another Blacktail doe charge and chase a bobcat away from her fawn. Bobcat gave up pretty quickly, in no more than a few minutes.

So I think it's like others stated above, it's their maternal instinct, even if their own brood aren't immediately threatened. They're herd animals, as well.

Other than hide them, not much that a deer could do for her babies against a ML--which surely account for the vast majority of fawns lost to predators locally. The most agitated does may have lost a fawn to a lion already. Maybe it's frustration, or indignation?

LionHo
 


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