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Charles Alsheimer, whitetail deer researcher has been studying the effects of the lunar cycle on breeding cues for the whitetail deer.

I have been following his theory and it has proven to be very accurate; It states that the full moon in November, the harvest moon acts as a cue to does to breed, usually 3 to 7 days after this full moon. This is one of the primary cues, besides temperatures( too warm suppresses day time rutting activity, usually 45 degrees or warmer)

This year the full moon comes pretty early Nov. 5th so the rut should hit early this year. This study has been a long term one of about 10years with many sources of data and i have seen it proven in the field.

Keep your eyes open for early rutting activity this year and lets hear some reports, we'll see if this is universal.For more info see www.charliealsheimer.com

I can tell you that in NW FL the rut is late December early January and a little west of where I hunted it was mid-February.

Doubt it will be 3 months early...

I'd like to see if any of these sources mentioned are from peer-reviewed, scientific journals. Chances are very good that they aren't. On the other hand, you'll have good luck finding peer-reviewed sources that are able to find zero correlation to behavior and the moon whether it be white-tails, squirrels, rabbits, or robins. As has been observed with many animals, particularly in temperate climates, photopoeriod (day length) is one of the primary variables in triggering seasonal behavior such as breeding.
Particularly in NY, where Alsheimer lives, fawns need to put on as much weight as possible to survive their first winter, and generally the majority are born at the end of May. Any earlier, even by a couple of weeks, and their chances of immediate survival diminish in much of the state due to weather, temperature, and lack of vegetative cover.
This late May birthing period suggests that the majority of fawns are conceived in mid-November, considering a 200 day gestation period. Like a lot of things in nature, this follows a bell-shaped curve, with some does coming into estrus sooner, and some later, but the majority are in estrus in mid-November, year in and year out.
Remembering that newborn fawns need all the time they can get to stock up and grow to survive their first winter, does it make any evolutionary sense at all for deer to rely on something that varies by 3 weeks per year to trigger their breeding behavior? What happens when the harvest moon falls at the end of November? Is a whole years worth of fawns born late and put at a disadvantage for the coming winter?
Although Alsheimer may have some creative ideas, using lunar tables to predict something as critical as the rut has not withstood hardcore scientific scrutiny.

Prediction is for northern rut,north of 40th latitude(Maryland/Pa boarder)Southern ruts vary greatly by region

"What happens when the harvest moon falls at the end of November? Is a whole years worth of fawns born late and put at a disadvantage for the coming winter?" According to Alsheimer,when the moon falls that late in Nov.,the Oct moon triggers the onset of the rut.

Steelhead

Go to the link and you will see which latitude hes talking about, plus those aint deer in Florida them is little puppies <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

Well there you go you answered your own question.....

You have proof of this or is it all speculation? The man has spent 10years and owns 100's yes 100's of deer, im more apt to believe him than you, what are your credentials?

The full moon in Novemeber is usually peak rut in Arkansas. I got my 8 pt here 2 years ago during this moon phase. Chasing a doe when I shot him in the back of the dead.

Hudge

I'm going to pick some nits with you:

The harvest moon is the first full moon after the equinox. It can't fall in late Nov.

I'm not sure exactly how many deer Charlie has in his pen but it is way fewer than 100. The pen is 35 acres.

More importantly, he has been working with observers all over the country. The number of observers would, I think, be in the 100's.

I believe that there is something to the theory and use it in planning time in the woods.

264bore,
I didn't intend to start an argument with you and initially posted the ideas on photoperiod because they are commonly accepted in mainstream science. Over the next few days, I'll compile a list of sources that I'll provide you, hopefully full-text so you don't have to go to a library to look read them. They'll all be from peer-reviewed scientific journals and focus on examining the influences of environmental factors such as photoperiod, lunar phase, and weather on animal behavior, including breeding onset of a number of animals, in addition to white-tailed deer.

I briefly searched tonite through wildlife articles worldwide using a university library search engine and didn't find a single journal article authored by Alsheimer. I know he writes for Deer and Deer Hunting, but the problem with that is he is allowed to get away with far more speculation and unsubstantiated opinion than would be the case were he to publish in a scientific journal. I realize he claims to have done several years worth of research on deer behavior, but I think it's a disservice to scientific progress that he doesn't publish any of it in peer-reviewed literature.

And to answer your questions directed at me, no it is not just speculation on my part. It actually isn't even my idea. The acceptance of photoperiod as a trigger for breeding in temperate organisms (both plants and animals) goes back several decades and has gained acceptance around the world by thousands of researchers. The reason this works is that day length change is a gradual process, meaning that an animals endocrine system is able to adapt with it, gradually increasing (or decreasing) hormones such as testosterone and estrogen.

Like a lot of other animal species, the whitetail rut is more a factor of when females come into estrus than when males are ready (Aren't most males of any species always ready?). Remembering the bell-shaped curve, some females may be more sensitive to the decrease in day length and will come into estrus up to 2-3 weeks early, which in New York and New Jersey means the end of October or beginning of November. Likewise, some won't have their first estrus until lateron in November and even possibly into the beginning of December. So despite the fact that the rut may "peak" at a certain time, it is very possible to observe breeding over a much longer period of time.

Photoperiod also mirrors the whitetails behavioral ecology to a T. Does come into estrus at one time during the year. Days only get critically shorter during late fall/early winter. Breeding in northern latitudes can't happen during the spring because fat stores are too low from the long winter to support an estrus.

The full moon, however, fluctuates through it's cycle 12 times throughout the year. Are we supposed to believe that the brain and endocrine system of deer or any other animal is able to completely ignore the cues of the other 11 full moons, yet somehow use that one "special" full moon that falls in November (or late October) as their cue to commence breeding? Why is there no correlation to the moon for elk or mule deer or moose, or bears or whatever?

I personally don't buy the moon phase influence because there are far more logical explanations. Coming out of a long summer fat and healthy, deer are able to gradually compensate for the gradually changing day length cues by gradually increasing production of reproductive hormones, and through adaptation of a couple of hundred thousand years, start breeding around the time that insures the highest chances of reproductive success during the next spring for their region of the country, year in and year out. This is why every year in New York you can all of sudden start seeing and finding fawns right around Memorial Day. You won't see many much before that, regardless the full moon fell at the end of October, but you can still count on finding them then even if the full moon fell at the end of November.

D&DH gives Alsheimer the opportunity to talk about whatever he wants and largely ignore the influence of photoperiod. He doesn't have to conduct statistics or back up his ideas with established scientific references. He couldn't get away with that in a scientific journal. That's fine with me, he can say whatever he wants in a magazine desinged for entertainment, but I won't agree with him.

My credentials aren't anything spectacular, I have a Bachelor's degree in Biology and I'm at the last stage in completing a Master's degree in wildlife biology. In addition I've worked on several whitetail research related projects where I've live trapped and radio-collared deer, collected and analyzed over 1000 remote camera photos, aged hunter-harvested deer, and conducted distance sampling through spotlight surveys.

In addition to this, I've worked on bird projects throughout the US and Carribean (real tough to leave NY in January for the Bahamas, but somebody's gotta do it) and authored 2 papers in ornitholigical journals. I'm currently working on a 3rd paper that'll outline a GIS model I designed and calibrated to identify suitable elk habitat in the eastern US.

What would really interest me is if everybody that logs in here would keep track of their observations and pay no attention to the moon phase at all, then at the end of the season, compile the results and see if they correlate, or not.

Here is one 225 pound Florida puppy, anything else you know nothing about......

Hmmm............sour grapes maybe?If you've met the man and spoke to him you would realize if he"claims" to have done something,it's been done.Your "scientific journal" shpeel shows your infulence by the university system.'Cause someones work and findings aren't published in a scientific journal for all the eggheads to scower through dosen't make the findings less valid or more. Not a very scientific way to gather data,due to varing locations,weather,hunting pressure, as well as a meriad of other factor that effect rut behavior......

It's not sour grapes at all and it isn't just the university system that relies on published information. State and federal wildlife managers rely on it just as heavily, if not more so. If you don't publish your research findings and expain how you designed your experiments or observations in journals that have a set standard for scientific integrity, how is anyone supposed to find out about it? What if I decided that I wanted to replicate his experiments and analysis to see if his conclusions held up elsewhere? He's got a couple of books out, but they don't outline his experimental design. Luckily, I could call him, but what happens when he dies? Somebody else will have to start at square 1, despite the fact that Asheimer already did years of research. Not everyone has or will have the opportunity to talk to him face to face. Submitting a paper to a journal tha gets reviewed by your fellow scientists prior to publication confirms to all that your work is valid and conclusions are sound. In addition, it makes your work easy to find and interpret. A lot of times, I'll read a paper and leave with new questions that can spawn more research. That's how the world of science progresses, by adding to work that has already been done and reinforcing conclusions that were made in the past. If you don't publish, no one will have the opportunity to build off your hard work because they'll have to start at the beginning, even if you already did it before.

So you don't like my idea? That's fine, but it would be pretty easy to also factor in regional location, current weather, how many other hunters you saw, how many hours you spent in the woods, time of day that you observed rutting activity, moon phase, and any other variable you can think of. Then you could plug them into your analysis and determine which variables had a significant impact on rutting behavior.

I think Charlie is a regular woods rat who enjoys relating his observations and those of his associates to his readers. In reading his work and listening to him speak, I never got the impression that he takes himself too seriously. He doesn't claim to have all of the answers just tells what he sees going on in the woods. He is trying to nail down the right week to go hunting not doing cancer research.

Alzheimer has also come to the conclusion in the last few years, that there are also other factors. This due to the feedback he gets from widespread observation from other parts of the country.

As to peer review, he does put forth his observations and theories to his peers. The original name of the Deer and Deer Hunting outfit or group was Stumpsitters (In short the guys who are in the woods deer hunting or just observing). In other words his peers, those who for the most subscribe to the magazine. You do not have to be a trained scientist to study something.

Now before you think this is defense of Alzheimer, Dr. Ozgo (not sure got name spelled right) also wrote and may still do articles, for D & DH. He opposed Alzheimer's theory, due his involvement with enclosure studies and conception dates determined from autopsies.

As you said, the more data from wherever, the better chance we have to learn something, or where to look for possible answers.

I would think at this point, it is evident there ARE other factors contributing to the rut cycle, conception, and birthing dates, than photoperiodism. For instance: heat, cold, exceptional clouds, predation, habitat, hunting pressure, deer social dynamics just to name a few. This is in no way saying that photoperiods are not the main contributing factor. There many whitetail studies that contradict another in the scientific community. We just don't have all the answers yet, and probably never will. I see no way this this should negate any possible information that may be a value to whoever, for whatever, including science.

To be so, I believe would be to have a narrow-minded view of the overall picture and/or question.

I wholeheartedly agree that you don't have to be a trained scientist to study something. In fact, you don't even have to be a scientist to publish in a scientific journal. You just have to design an experiment or study that is capable of withstanding scrutiny from fellow peers that have previously published similar work. You don't have to agree with them if you can back up your findings with hard core research.

Dr. John Ozoga is very highly respected throughout the professional communityand has published dozens of papers in scientific journals as well as written books on whitetail behavior. He's studied captive whitetails and their reproductive physiology since the 60's. If the moon phase had any influence on reproductive behavior, you can bet he'd have looked into it. The fact that he disagrees, and I'll take your word for it that he does, since I've not heard other wise, speaks volumes.

I agree that other factors influence breeding in deer. Although there are few if any indications that hunting pressure or predation influences the rut, given that the majority of hunting seasons coincide with the rut and deer (especially whitetails) don't have any problems increasing their population, other factors such as physical condition and overall health of individual deer certainly come into play.

I firmly believe that we need to keep our eyes open and be willing to accept new information. With this in mind, we also need to discard ideas that don't play out. the influence of the moon on rut onset, similar to the earth being flat, is one of these ideas.

It should be noted that Alsheimer does not say that the lunar cycle alone triggers doe estrus. It is the full moon that arrives after the diminishing photoperiod. According to Alsheimer and LaRoche, that's why the other 11 full moons do not have the same effect.

For what it's worth, and because no one (except me now) has so far mentioned it, Alsheimer did not come up with his lunar theory alone, nor does he study it alone, nor is it without its scientific supporters. Vermont wildlife biologist Dr. Wayne Laroche is in the same camp. It's easy to think that Alsheimer is in this alone because of his position with D&DH.

By the way, to those who have commented on southern deer Alsheimer's study covers only northern whitetails, those north of 35� latitude.

For a general overview, see www.CharlieAlsheimer.com

Steve

I always read his theories and I am sure there is something about them that is true. I was out yesterday and in the morning 2 doe came by. They weren't being chased and just feed. In the afternoon all hell broke loose and does where being chased left and right. My buddy 100 yds from me saw 5 buck chasing. I thought it was strange that in the morning it was slow. Anyone have any ideas.

joes