The whole Alabama rut and restocking fascinates the hell out of me.
In looking at, say, Calhoun County (denoted 6 on the map), it shows mid-November as peak, then an area only two counties west at the same latitude shows late January.
![[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]](https://i.imgur.com/YlZFhtT.jpg)
It's BS for the most part. Too many Does coming in heat at various times extends the rut. Ones that were not breed-because there are too many and they have a second heat-young of the year that mature early because of great habitat and weather, extends the rut. It's been 50 years since the big transplant. Whatever rut time those Deer brought with them has been assimilated into Alabama conditions. You are correct: Two counties away and the rut is two months different? I guess all of the Deer that were transplanted into one county never had any offspring that moved over to one of the others. Color me skeptical....
Addition: Have seen Bucks here around home in February and March still carrying their horns. Friend had some on his trial cam just last week with racks. One of them a better than nice 10. Weather has been warm, right now it is 44F. Blood flows better to the extremities with heat vs cold. Perhaps higher temps are a factor. According to the map, the further South you go, the later the rut.
Interesting....how much time do you spend in Alabama during these rut times in these various pockets to dismiss these claims?
Your biological arguments to dismiss it really make me scratch my head. For example, you are trying the cite Bergmann's law (I think) which refers to latitudinal variations of body size relative to temperatures. Don't think Bergmann had Alabama in mind, especially since the state from north to south doesn't have the widespread temperature variations to be noticable in body size, let alone somehow translating to a 2 month swing in rut.
Also, Texas for example, has a lot of deer, volume and density in lots of places. The rut there is pretty consistent on a geographical scale and in no way has pockets like the map shown. If the variability in rut was due to doe cycling wouldn't Texas or numerous other states have these issues? Why Alabama?
