As winter gave way to summer, did you notice anything different about your deer herd’s coats? Much like we transition from heavy winter coats to light spring jackets to sleeveless summer shirts, deer shed their thick winter coats to give way to summer coats. As deer shed these coats, you might find deer hair spread out on the ground in various areas near bedding areas, along travel routes and other paths. So what does this mean?
Deer shed their winter coat each spring, usually between April and June, so this transition just wrapped up a few weeks ago at the time of this article. The shedding process is triggered by the increase in daylight hours, also known as a photoperiod, rather than temperature. So, that means that even though different areas of the country will be different temperatures in late spring and early summer, warm in the south and cool in the north, the shedding happens at the same time throughout the country because it goes by the daylight hours, which are more uniform.
The thick, hollow-shafted guard hairs of the winter coat are replaced by a shorter, reddish-brown summer coat. Winter deer hair is distinctive. It is coarse, hollow, somewhat brittle and will snap or crumble if bent, unlike the finer summer coat.
Deer engage in ground-rubbing and rolling behavior, though it’s not as dramatic as it is with horses, dogs, and many other mammals. The deer will rub or wriggle around against vegetation, rocks and other surfaces to help dislodge loose hair. Bedding areas are particularly common places to find accumulations of shed hair, since the friction of lying down and getting up repeatedly helps pull the loose winter coat free.
These sites can give you valuable insight into herd behavior that you can file away and use for the upcoming hunting season. If you find two similar hair sites near one another, that indicates that you might have found a bedding area which will help you narrow your focus for possible hunting sites come fall. Finding a deer’s coat hairs on the ground and knowing what it means for their lifecycle can be a great tool for a hunter’s arsenal of knowledge.
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