Bucks often grow more cautious as they grow older, but they also become set in their ways, inhabiting smaller core areas that provide everything they need. (Shutterstock image)
I often wonder if we give whitetails too much credit. These critters—especially mature ones—are certainly skilled in the art of survival.
But whitetails aren't intelligent in the way humans are. They can't add, subtract, reason or rhyme. They're purely reactionary; they adapt to environmental challenges, including hunting and predation. In that sense...