Whitetail Bedtime

I find their beds all the time when scouting in the brush - a carefully matted-down depression in the taller grasses or a hollowed-bowl melted into the snow.  

Whitetail deer like to hang-out and rest in locations where they feel secure. Typically where they have the wind at their back to smell danger and can see potential danger in front of them – a place that offers good cover.  

A deer could be quite vulnerable while they sleep if it were not for the sensitive sniffer and always swiveling ears.  Deer know what is happening around them at all times and if they smell or hear something out of place with the normal rhythms of their surroundings they will bolt and skedaddle.  

In the wintertime deer prefer to bed amongst the thermal cover provided by dense stands of pines.   

Such as here. 

 

Deer also prefer to bed near water and food sources.  Sometimes they sleep solo.  Sometimes they bed-down in groups.  Because they are creatures of habit if they find an optimal location it is not unusual for several return visits.  

Sleep is usually five to ten minutes in length. Trail camera surveillance supports the notion of up to twenty minutes of rest.  The whitetail sleep cycle is not at all unlike that of the whitetail deer hunter – dozing-off for a few minutes and snapping to attention.  Consider this too; bedded deer might not be dozing at all.  

From the very same location as above is this series of silent 15 second video vignettes that I stitched-together.  

They might just be hanging out for an extended siesta and chewing their cud......