![]() That difference creates adaptable hunting behaviors, like walking while shooting a deer off a walking trail. You can very quickly go from non-threatening to threatening. Things as small as the humans stopping for more than a second or two can make major differences. They are ready to react at any sign of the behavior changing in the human. When these non-threatening humans pass, they are on high alert. A whitetail will stay still and allow common humans to pass. The difference between threatening behaviors and alerting behaviors is significant. When we say “non-threatening behavior” we do not mean that the deer ignores everyday humans. Begin to think when we see these common human behaviors, how can we make that help us as a hunter? The ability to identify and analyze these situations is paramount in adapting these urban camouflages to harvest a whitetail. The style of their walk, their talking, the time of day and their location made them no threat in the eyes of a whitetail. They were exhibiting many behaviors of non-threatening, non-hunters. The “least expecting” hunters saw those deer because they were not acting like hunters. As a result, deer have been conditioned to know that the closer they are to roads and buildings, the safer they remain. Many hunters will believe that the further in the woods they go the better the chance they have at deer. Deer are very adaptable creatures and hunters, more often than not, tend to be very stubborn traditionalists. They understand that human movement in the dark and the use of flashlights most likely means the presence of a predator, not a non-threatening human.Ĭonsider our “least expecting” hunters. Deer are used to human movement in daylight hours. Hikers, speed walkers, kids, bikers all have very different movements than the distinct predator, the hunter.Įven the time of day can make these hunters less threatening, like walking from the woods after a morning hunt. They are most likely walking less like a hunter and no longer creeping through the woods. If hunting with others, hunters will often talk when they are walking out from the woods about the weather, the hunt or things going on at home. How many hunters have told you, “ We saw the deer when we least expected it.” Analyze that statement and understand what was different from the hunt. In what situations do non-hunters tell us they see deer? Are they walking a trail, raking leaves, driving a car? Were they talking, what were they wearing, what time of day was it? Deer analyze all of that sensory information when they decide if that particular person is threatening or non-threatening. By making the difference between the predatory hunter and the non-threatening human more definable, we can then understand more easily how to identify urban camouflage. We are ultimately separating everyday people from hunters, as if we are two separate species. Identifying urban camouflage means taking one important step: think less like a hunter and more like an everyday citizen. The deer are used to detecting human scent on these trails regularly. In such situations, issues of wind direction are avoided by using a trail to enter a tree stand. For example, using walking trails that are commonly traveled by hikers, bikers and other non-hunters. Urban camouflage is a technique that allows you to blend with non-threatening human behavior to gain an advantage. In fact, the list is so large that the idea here is to learn how to identify “urban camouflage” rather than describing each specific type. Ultimately, what makes a deer understand a safe situation is repeatedly experiencing something with no threat to themselves or other whitetails around them. In urban/suburban settings deer must distinguish the difference between threatening and non-threatening behavior. As a result of this conditioning, deer mentally log what is safe and what is not. You will find one common theme throughout the Urban Deer Complex 2.0 content and that’s the idea of deer being a conditioned animal. How can we emulate what a deer considers to be non-threatening human behavior? That would be physical camouflage, whereas we are talking about psychological camouflage. To understand urban camouflage we must think outside the box here as we are not talking in reference to the multi-million dollar business of producing camouflage patterns that conceal us in any environment. Urban Camouflage - what does that mean to a whitetail deer?
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