We have all encountered a situation where deer are in abundance. Trail cameras are filled, sign is fresh, bucks are seemingly at a surplus. Every third trail camera photo we have is of a mature hard antlered buck. Then, they completely stop showing up. The sign is still there, the does that often accompany them are still in the area, but the bucks just disappear.
Or do they? You move cameras around out property trying to find them accessing bedding, and food sources from a different direction. Fresh rubs and scrapes keep popping up, but there is still no pictures on your cameras to confirm it. Then the question hits you:
Do deer avoid trail cameras?
Deer can and sometimes do avoid trail cameras. It depends on many factors such as the deer’s individual personality, the camera’s line of sight, scent control, and reaction to night time flash from the camera.
My Experiment
I had this exact problem a few years ago. I had bucks crawling all over a particular area, I deemed the “honey hole”. It is a 2 mile hike from the closest parking area, through swamps, and across a creek, a place that was void of virtually all human intrusion. Then almost as though a light switch turned off, the bucks disappeared. I was still getting multiple pictures of does and fawns, but the bucks I was looking for were gone.
I began to wonder if the deer I was after, had completely left the area, or if for some reason they had just began avoiding cameras all together. I decided to try a simple experiment.
I left my trail camera which was pointing due North untouched and added two cameras one directly next to it but pointing South, and another 20 yards behind the original camera pointing West, to watch the back side of the cameras to see if there was any sign of how deer reacted when approaching the previously existing camera.
To my surprise this is what I found:
On the West facing camera, I picked up a picture of a decent 2 year old buck heading directly toward the original camera. The direction the deer is facing is looking directly at the original camera location. He is heading down the trail that the camera is set on.
At the last moment, he turns and heads South of the camera, in an attempt to avoid it completely.
On the South facing camera I was able to pick up the buck skirting around the original camera, but still headed in the same pattern I had seen just weeks prior.
* I had a personal error of setting my cameras info stamps. The actual date was suppose to be 10/11/2016 and the time time was supposed to be PM not AM. Goes to show the importance of double checking before you set your cameras.
Line of Sight
It is hard to believe that a deer will notice a small camera on the side of a tree. After all, they cover hundreds if not thousands of acres of terrain. One small abnormality seems as though it would pass by their conscience recognition off being out of place. But to a deer who spends its entire life focused on survival, noticing the small things is what keeps them alive.
Hanging your cameras higher in the tree is a great way to not only avoid being in the direct sight of a deer, it also allows you to keep your camera away from potential trail camera thieves as well. The problem with having an elevated camera set, is that your camera’s detection systems is based on a linear line, making it so that you lose considerable amount of coverage when angling that detection system toward the ground.
A better way to keep your camera out of the direct sight of deer, is to brush your camera in with natural surroundings. Using natural branches tall grass and thicker vegetation will allow you to simply blend your camera into the forest as part of the natural environment. In areas where lower hanging branches and tall grass is not an option, such as old growth timer stands, using a tree that is larger than the camera, keeps your camera from sticking out too far, making it less noticeable.
Scent Control
This past hunting season I passed by a trail camera on the way to my tree stand. I stopped, sat down my hunting pack, quickly switched out SD cards, and was on my way in less than two minutes. About two hours later, I watched as a lone doe walk down a trail heading straight toward my camera. She got within 10 yards of my camera and stopped dead.
She stared ahead of her, straight legged. She took a step, put her nose to the ground, and looked up again. For 20 minutes she scent checked the camera, and the ground where I had placed my hunting pack. She knew I had been there, and knew that the scent around that tree was directly correlated with the trail camera.
Every deer that has that experience with the scent around a camera, would have a lasting knowledge that the trail camera, is associated with human odor, and every camera they see from then on, would trigger the same response. While each individual deer might have a different reaction to that experience, it is easy to see how that would encourage deer from avoiding them all together.
Keeping human odor away from your trail cameras, is nearly an impossible task, but there are some precautions you can take to minimize it. Wearing rubber boots, latex gloves and avoiding placing any gear on the ground around your camera to prevent your scent from being placed at your camera is a great start. Checking cameras during or right before a rain storm, will also allow some of your scent to dissipate. But of course the best way to eliminate scent from your trail camera sets is to avoid checking them unless you absolutely need the information. We have a great resource on the frequency of how often you should check your trail cameras.
Night Time Flash
When trail cameras first hit the consumer market, the only way to get a night time photo was with a white flash. That white flash was bright and abrupt, and it was quickly observed that the light was spooking deer.
While, there are still a few white flash cameras still on the market, most camera manufactures have gone to either an infrared (IR) or a black flash for night time photos. We also, have a resource about the difference in trail camera flash modes. There has been a tremendous amount of debate on whether deer are able to see IR, but no scientific study has been able to prove that deer are able to see that end of the color spectrum.
We likely will all hold our own opinions about trail camera flashes, but I have a continuous library of photos of deer staring directly into the lens of my camera after an IR flash has gone off.
Now could this be due to the noise a trail camera makes when taking a picture? Absolutely. But I can not deny that the frequency of which it happens during night time photos, which leads me to believe, that whether they are able to see the IR or not, they do detect the light that is emitted from the camera.
Black flash, also known as no glow flash, is the latest in technology that is allowing for your camera to take night time photos without any visible flash at all. The pictures will be noticeably darker, and the flash range is often less than what you would get from an IR camera, but aside from eliminating night time photos all together, it is the best option to keep your camera from drawing attention to itself.
There are so many benefits to using trail cameras that many people might even think that it is an unfair advantage to use them. The truth is, with every benefit you receive, you have just as many risks of screwing up the entire situation as well. And if you rely solely on the information you receive from a trail camera, you are likely missing out on what is happening behind your camera, as a big mature buck slips by unnoticed.