death scent

[bckev]

Has anyone heard about deer giving off a scent when they are killed that warns other deer to stay away. I have never heard that before, it came up in a conversation yesterday.

[Leaseman]

Never heard of it and don't believe there is such a thing....

[Dirty]

I call BS, have you never heard of guys gutting deer and then another comes up to see whats going on and then bang flop.

[stanway]

I call BS as well. I have had a blacktail doe hang around me while I gutted her brother or cousin.

Maybe if you shoot them in the guts - now that's an awful smell.

[416]

Don't know that l would call it a "death scent" but l am sure there is a scent and it can be picked up by other deer. Whether or not it relays danger or not is open to debate but just thinking of how strong deers sense of smell is, l can't see it not putting other animals within the "sent range" on alert......
Despite what Walt Disney would have us believe, death is a normal occurrence in nature and all animals are aware of the smells associated with it.

[Bugsy]

I have personally experienced "the death scent" theory.
It was in a wall tent after chili night:frown: ............................I don't want to talk about it!:mad:



Seriously though,I agree this is B.S.Don't know how many times I have had deer hanging around after one was shot.Have even chased them when they were getting too close while trying to gut out their brotherin.Bugsy:smile:

[Walksalot]

A wounded whitetail buck deer died near one of my treestands. I watched other whitetail does feed near the dead animal and they seemed to be uneffected by the smell. They would however be extremely effected by the sounds of the ravens on the remains. I watched the deer feed and when one of the ravens would let out a loud cackle some of the does would almost jump out of their skin. Having said that, I saw lots of does but not one buck, not even a little bugger and I logged the hours in that stand.

[steel_ram]

Passengers that bail out of my moving car to escape my ass gas. That could be considered a 'death scent'.

[Tarp Man]

The two blacktail bucks Lapadat and I took this fall are in contradiction to that. They were shot 4 minutes and 5 yards apart.

[Gateholio]

I shot a mule deer at about 250 paces. He was the bigger of 2 bucks, standing beside each other. The deer I shot went straigth down, behind a little bump.

When I walked up toi it, the smaller buck jjumped up and ran for a bit, then looked back at me..I coudl have shot him, too.

He had laid rigth back down next to his big buddy, who was now leaking blood all over the alpine.

Little buck didn't seem concerned.:lol:

[dave_fras]

i dont believe in that at all!...a couple years ago i shot a nice whitey from ym stand... and the very next day my cousin shot a basket 4 from the same stand

[NEEHAMA]

no it's true! it comes from a gland in the ears. it's called the daedreed gland. the gland shrinks during the rut. thus not as noticable in nov etc. early season deer produce more when killed. many animals not just deer can smell this odour.

[4pointer91]

Last fall I shot a good sized 4-point muley buck, 10 mins later as I was cleaning it a doe and another 4-point buck came along. The other 4-point stood 20 ft from me and sniffed the dead buck, definately no fear, in fact I thought it was going to attack the dead buck, perhaps myself!!! It stuck around for about 30 secs even after I started yelling at it to get lost. One of those days you wish you were hunting with a partner eh!

[bigwhiteys]

2 years ago we spotted 2 - 4 point muleys fighting. Our partner shot one of them and then we had to run the other buck off as he was trying to fight our downed buck. He hung around until we had gutted and loaded the deer up. He kept circling us head down, snorting, almost in a testosterone trance I guess you could say... No concern about us... And we had a tag too! the lucky bugger.

Happy Hunting!
Carl

[blaker_99]

i don' think there is such a thing as giving of a "dead scent" per say. If any of you have watchd the Drury brothers Buck Grawl video you would be truly amazed. the guy shoot a doe and as he used to buck grawl to call in more deer one of the bucks litterly gorrds the dead doe by tossing him in the air with hi antlers and smashing it up with them as well. if you can get your hands on the video it is amazing. cheers.

[wetcoaster]

There are insect species that have been shown to give off a death scent to warn others but these ocurances are all in species with social and or mating systems that promote a high degree of relatedness between individuals (eg if you crush an aphid on a branch the "death scent" from the crushed aphid will cause the others to drop from the plant in order to avoid predators).

I agree with others here and have never heard of any credible information that suggests that grazing mammals give off death signals with scent. The evolutionary advantage to doing this within ungulate social or mating systems is unlikely to yield a high enough fitness benefit through kin selection to cause this trait to be selected over time.

[Gunner]

My partner shot a 5x6 mulie last fall,and a 2point stayed bedded less than 150 feet away and watched as as we backed the truck in,field dressed the big buck,and loaded him in the truck.He was still lying there watching us when we drove out.Several does stood about 100 ft behind him as well. Gunner

[MB_Boy]

As others have said.......I have never noticed it, but rather the opposite. Same thing with dropping a deer and having another walk in or it's partner stick around.

I shot a second buck one year not much more than 30 yards from where I shot one earlier in the week with the gut pile virtually untouched.

Now.....if there was just a whole carcass that had not been picked over who knows what the smell would do; I have never come across such a situation??

[Fisher-Dude]

I shot a meat buck a few years ago that was with a small spike. I ended up throwing a few sticks at the spike to get him to leave me alone while I cleaned his bigger brother.

In another instance I had shot a nice 4x4 and was getting ready to clean him when a 2 point and a doe came down the trail. They sniffed where the 4x4 was when I hit him, and then walked right up to me despite my waving my arms and talking to them. They passed within 15 feet of me and the dead buck without spooking.

And yet another time I shot a wide 4x4 that was on a hot doe. When I was cleaning the buck, a 3x3 came along, obviously smelling the estrus doe. He walked right up to me, the quad (yep dana, shot while out riding the quad! :biggrin: ), and the dead buck and stood there as I phoned my buddy on my cell to tell him what was going on. That 3x3 spent the next half hour circling and sniffing, looking for that hot doe. He didn't care about the dead buck, me, or the quad.

Death scent? Nope.

[Murder]

I call BS as well. I have had a blacktail doe hang around me while I gutted her brother or cousin.

Maybe if you shoot them in the guts - now that's an awful smell.

Does it smell as bad or worse than when you rupture a goose intestine while cleaning it?

[hunter1947]

I call it bull ,one thing that i think they don't like is the gut bag and lungs etc that is left after the kill ,i have seen elk bolt off in a run when they came apon a kill area. hunter 1947.

[stanway]

Does it smell as bad or worse than when you rupture a goose intestine while cleaning it?

I can't say I have had that pleasure yet, so I can't compare.

The gut shot deer was actually my brother-in-law's first deer. I held the legs for him while he got in there and cleaned it all out - he didn't even puke, which amazes me to this day. But he did learn to watch his shot placement. :lol:

[Chuck]

no it's true! it comes from a gland in the ears. it's called the daedreed gland. the gland shrinks during the rut. thus not as noticable in nov etc. early season deer produce more when killed. many animals not just deer can smell this odour.

Right on! All living things give it "off" is correct, even plants. People can get sniffer dogs to "detect" when they are going to have a fit, or a heart attack or something else.

[Mattimoose]

Yeah, I guess it's so but it sure attracts bears!

[30-06]

not true...my dads buddy shot a 4x4 muley a few years back and my dad was huting with him..then old johnny comes back to see what happened to his old friend gerry.and bang there i s2 4x4 muleys down

[huntwriter]

As the body stops to function it releases pheromones and hormones. In some severe cases such odors can even be detected with our weak human noses. In a violent death, such as an animal being shot, the body releases in addition a lot of adrenalin that has a very stong smell.

In the many years I studied animals in the wild, on a professional level, there is no doubt in my mind that animals indeed can smell death - animals regularly use pheromones and hormones to relay messages to other animals or gather information. Animals may not comprehend that this is the smell of death. I say, “may not” because not enough studies have been done to conclude a definite “Yes” or “No”.
However, other than a very few exceptions, I have never observed that animals acted alarmed or scared by smelling the death or the dying of another animal. Animals that did act alarmed or scared did so because they witnessed unfamiliar movement of the dying animal, such as violent kicking and struggling or unfamiliar sounds. In these cases it was clearly the visual and acustic aspect of the scenario that caused the distress not the olfactory senses.

As a matter of fact most of my observations in that regard show that animals, including herbivores, seemed strangely attracted to most dead animals or the remains of dead animals. In these observations animals often would spend considerable time curiously examining the dead body. Often we observed animals, including herbivores, nibbling and licking deceased animals or on bones of long ago deceased animals. This may be done to obtain nutrients and proteins such as calcium. Again more research needs to be done on this phenomenon.

The short answer to your questions would be. Yes animals can smell death put they are not alarmed by the smell. Animals may be alarmed if they witness visually and, or acoustically a dying animal or the circumstances (i.e. hunter, predator or gun shot) that caused the death of that animal.