How Acute is Mule Deer Hearing?

Cav1

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So we were finishing up re-siding our house today and despite all the acitivity and the noise from the saw, air compressor, and nail gun, two mulie bucks in velvet fed onto us and bedded down for a mid-day siesta not a hundred yards from the house.

View attachment IMG_2081 (1).JPG

Strictly as I scientific experiment, I went in the back room and, muffling the sound with a pillow, inserted a single cartridge into a rifle magazine. Both bucks were over the fence and gone in 0.73 seconds. ;)
 
I was sitting about 20 yards from a waterhole wearing a ghillie suit and went to draw my bow. Just the swish sound made when I moved made the deer explode and leave in a cloud of dust like I had thrown a firecracker.
I've had bucks hear a rock crunch from about 60 yards away. There isn't much they don't hear.
 
There’s two factors in play here - hearing and listening. Given the size of their ears, I can only assume their hearing is incredibly acute. However, the brain has to actually process the sound and then trigger some reaction by the animal (th listening part). That’s where I’m not so sure about the intelligence of mule deer. I grew up hunting whitetails, and if you spooked one of them he wouldn’t stop running until he was in the next county. My experience with mule deer is that, when spooked, they will run 20 yards and then turn around to see what spooked them. I like hunting muley’s :giggle:
 
There’s two factors in play here - hearing and listening. Given the size of their ears, I can only assume their hearing is incredibly acute. However, the brain has to actually process the sound and then trigger some reaction by the animal (th listening part). That’s where I’m not so sure about the intelligence of mule deer. I grew up hunting whitetails, and if you spooked one of them he wouldn’t stop running until he was in the next county. My experience with mule deer is that, when spooked, they will run 20 yards and then turn around to see what spooked them. I like hunting muley’s :giggle:

And while you're looking at the one that stopped, the big boy is over in the weeds sneaking away, and you never see him. ;)

QQ
 
From a mile and a half with calm winds last Fall my wife said, "That's a big buck." Not loud either. All three bucks were head up staring directly at us. Pretty impressive.
 

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