Deer Hearing

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This clip shows how a deer cups its ears to pinpoint the source of a sound that may be a threat.

[Limbs and Sticks]

As good as radar

[warningshot]

PHENOMINAL HEARING

[Cossack]

Only exceeded by their 'smeller'. You can fool the ears, the nose...not so much.

[bearclan]

On my last hunt of the season i was setup on some leftover beans- three does came out, i was sitting downwind in a ground blind in front of some brush my exocet was up on my shooting stick- the big doe came to within 5 yards- after pushing off the safety she heard my thumb move! she slammed on and looked rite at me! she was quartering to me no shot- i froze she turned and trotted off she was looking at me but a small tree was blocking my shot she was 15 yards broadside! so i slowly turned and shot the next one- i was amazed she heard my thumb sliding across the stock!

[Dave1]

Deer have an amazing ability to hear and detect non-natural sounds. They can pinpoint the source and location of the sound and react all in a millisecond.

Dave

[K31Scout]

Better to spend money on other archery gizmos rather than to try and silence these crossbows.

I've found a deer can hear you but not know what you are. They can see you and not know what you are. If they smell you they absolutely know what you are and leave in a hurry.

Amazing animals!

[Brenjen]

Deer have an amazing ability to hear and detect non-natural sounds. They can pinpoint the source and location of the sound and react all in a millisecond.

Dave

In my experience that's the key; the unnatural aspect of the sound. It seems from what I've encountered the whitetail's brain interprets sights & smells much better than sounds. If you're trying to be quiet & the deer hear you, you sound like a clumsy predator; if you move normally & they hear you but can't see or smell you they react much differently, almost curious instead of alarmed.

Of course they are individuals & have differing reactions to similar stimuli. For instance I had a small doe & a button buck walk up on me last year; I was in some dead fall that was maybe three feet off the ground hung up in some living trees. These two meandered around in front of me for an hour @ about 20ft. distance when the BB decided to come towards me. I was being still & quiet (naturally) because at the time I was unaware that it was a BB which was legal to shoot. As it approached it looked right at me nibbling on the new growth budding on the ends of the small branches & proceeded to walk right under me, the distance between us was maybe eighteen vertical inches from the bottom of my feet to the top of his back.

I decided to let him go & grow up so I said in a normal voice "Hello little fella'....the big bad wolf gonna' getcha" - & he froze. No flag, no movement he just froze. The doe was still about ten yards away & she too just lifted her head in a quizzical way as if to say; Did you say something?

After about two minutes the doe snorted & they ran off about twenty yards more & returned to meandering as if nothing had happened. The strange part is, the same two came back & did the exact same thing the next day, complete with the BB walking right under me in the same spot. This time I stayed quiet & watched, they seemed to remember because when they got back to where they were the previous day they froze & listened, lifting their heads & sniffing the air.

The only thing I could figure is their brains didn't register what the sound was because they hadn't seen me or smelled me. It was loud enough that it didn't seem sneaky(?) if that's the right adjective & that seemed to make them curious. The other few deer I saw that day seemed to spot me, or my shape & stayed out about 50 yds & hurried past angling away from me.

I don't know, maybe I'm way off base here but that's not the first time I've seen such out of character behavior from a whitetail.