I’ve been hunting since I was 14 years old. I’m now 54, soon to be 55. In my 40 hunting seasons, I’ve never witnessed what I saw tonight. A young shed buck was dogging does...head down and harassing them. They didn’t want anything to do with him and after checking out most of the does, he walked over to a scrape and pissed in it. He then spent about a minute rubbing his face on the overhanging branch and licking it. With my binoculars I could see the bloody spots on his head where he had recently shed. I know that the increase in daylight signals the pituitary gland to decrease the testosterone in a bucks body...he then sheds his antlers and begins to grow new ones. I thought that once a buck has shed, that his testosterone level was low and he would lose interest in breeding. I learned something new today after seeing this behavior with my own eyes. Has anyone else ever witnessed a shed buck still interested in breeding?
