Deer migration q

[Andrews]

Hi guys have you ever seen mulies migrate out of an area only to move back in shorty after? Ie like goats, get pushed out and then move back later.

Also will cold sometimes trigger a migration, mot just snow depth as in most migrations?

Good luck out there in the rut

[Looking_4_Jerky]

Not sure if it can be classed as a migration, but I have seen areas where deer seemed to have beat it in response to transient predator (coyotes) action. A while after the coyotes moved along, the deer seemed to filter back into the area. The whole cycle took a month or a bit more (give or take).

Temps can apparently sometimes trigger estrus in does, so I can see how it could affect a buck's behavior if a lot of does have left for lower ground. Deer migrations seem to be very location specific. I've hunted areas where the deer leave based on seasonality rather than snow depth. You definitely would tend to find this less in areas where the deer winter within a day's travel of their summer range. When they live close to their wintering areas, some animals will certainly stay until the snow nudges them along.

[horshur]

a snow or hard frost can have deer completly leave the country that they summer in only to have some other group winter close to where the first group summered..Some don't really migrate at all but weather such as frost will cause a seasonal shift as the local deer take advantage of the last green and utilize feed that becomes more palatable after a hard frost. Deeper snow will force them down in mass but they will move up as conditions merit and some will take advantage of smaller micro climates and winter in very deep snow where you would not expect them. I think a true migration will have deer move a fair distance from a summer range(high and low) to a winter range(high and low) it is not a elevation change per say. ie summer in one range and winter on another.
Elevation shifts are not realy migations and yes they go up and down somtimes every day. Weather tends to pressure them lower as they chase green feed but not so much later as they resign themselves to winter feed.