In the modern world there are getting to be fewer animals that have little to no exposure to man. Maybe baring Parts of Alaska even in rural areas there's farming ,ranching,oil&gas activities etc.where man invades the habitat regularly. Even in Wyoming we traveled from around Pinedale to Cody and it was obvious that the antelope ,elk and moose we saw, were acclimated to vehicles, livestock and humans.to a more or less degree. It's the same in the east. Given that, what common game animals do you find the spookiest around humans? In my observation baring cats which you rarely see it's the whitetail deer. Even around farms etc they seem to remain cautious and maintain a larger don't approach zone. I don't have much experience with pronghorn or mule deer but elk appear to adjust to humans much more readily than white tails. Hogs also seem to remain fairly furative but it may just be they are more nocturnal and we don't have that many here. What's been your experience?

Whitetails.

Mature Dall rams.

Tanner

Elitist.

Cougar, wolves, and BH rams.

My votes goes to a mature mulie buck, except during the rut.

Sasquatch. When was the last time you saw one of them?

Yep. Especially after the first few hours of the opener.

There are lots of them around here. This morning just at daylight there was a flock of them in my back pasture. Or is that a herd? Gaggle? Covey?

Mature Aoudad Ram, might be a close second to Tanner's Mature Dall Ram I have hunted both and it's a toss up. Rio7

I'd venture bighorn and pronghorn that have experienced just a little hunting pressure.

Pronghorn are the most skittish I've seen.

Big brown bears... I have had Dall sheep rams stand around and watch their buddy get butchered...

Big black bear

Big whitetail bucks under heavy hunting pressure are the spookiest critters I have ever seen.

As have I... but I've never seen a "mature" one do it. In my experience it's always been younger rams that were hanging with the older ram that got whacked, and had no idea what to do after. Some of the 8+ year old rams I've hunted seemed to have a 6th sense and the ability to disappear like ghosts when they didn't like what was going on.

I would agree that big brown bears are amongst the cagiest animals I've seen and hunted!

Tanner

Public land whitetail that have seen a season or two.

Chaucapra

DiCaprio? Chupacabra?

Whitetails in the Southeast. They get hunted hard.

A four or five year old whitetail doe...

Lowland Bongo

A mature whitetail deer.

The smartest and spookiest, but not considered a big game animal, would be the coyote.

Whichever one is in season when I have a tag.




Dave

This would apply here.

I guess we'd need to define "spookiest" a little further - to me that's turn-tail and be gone at the ever-so-slightest hint of anything.
I've found the older does to be lingerers, so if the topic were "biggest PIA" - they'd surely get my vote.

Is spookiest the easiest one to scare off, or the one you never got to see in the first place?

Cats are pretty damn sneaky, not sure I'd call them spooky though. Mature white tails are for sure spooky. Crazy to see them materialize during the rut in an area you hunted hard just a week before and found little sign and saw no deer.

Mature coues whitetail does and true free range axis deer...

If you've ever spent a day with a cougar guide and a pack of hounds, you'd be surprised just how many are out there and are never seen by people.

I believe it!

Good point.........


Casey

Of the critters I've hunted, a mature muley buck is the one that does not stick around to identify sound or movement--they just haul azz.


Casey

I worked on a cougar study in the 1980's. The researcher did a literature review of previous lion studies and talked to the researchers of those studies. They all told him what would happen:

--The public would be surprised how many cougars he caught.

--His own wildlife agency would be surprised by how many cougars he caught.

--The public would be all up in arms over all these cougars roaming around.

--In response, his agency would increase the cougar quotas.

And that is exactly what happened..........


Casey

A mature sika deer of either sex on the Eastern Shore of Maryland are some of the skittish animals I have ever seen. Jumpy ,hard to pattern and hard to see in the daylight ,the rut helps but not a lot. And they jump a bow string like no other medium game animal I ever seen...........

We've got enough cougars that they opened a trapping season for them. You'd think you'd see one once in awhile, but nope. Heck, I've got a game cam picture of what appears to be a were-wolf checking a bait but nary a cougar. If they didn't leave tracks I'd swear they were mythical.

Bangeye: I have Hunted most all of them and in my experience a 5 1/2 year old plus Mule Deer is extremely wary!
That is until about November 20th when the rut renders them much less cautious.
Yeah try and capture one of these on public lands!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I'd throw mature Columbia blacktails into the mix. They can spend their entire life in a square mile and never be seen by human eyes. Unlike mulies or whitetail's that will run into the next state if pressured, many times they will just bury themselves into a patch of salal and stay there until the pressure is off.

Buck Jackalope

I've spotted countless doe but the bucks stay hidden.

My vote is yearling caribou...🙀

Mature public land whitetail.

nor est fla naitve whitetail deer

Good point!


Casey

I go to a local mall and see a dozen cougars a day...

Similar thing happened here in Anchorage some years back when a brown bear study showed about 45 in a small part of the city...

Except they did not open a season nor remove them...

Remember, the guy said, "the 2 legged kind will only break your heart !!

Jerry

A cougar for me would have to be a grougar and I will pass on them... leaving the cane at home is considered shooting over a baited field!

Barbary sheep.
Oryx.

Blacktails are way spookier than whitetails across the board. They become completely nocturnal on public land.


Okie John

I'd love to find out.

Mature Coues buck
Mature Cougar

I have almost run into blacktails standing on a beach. My buddies and I have taken multiple bucks off a single beach but a few minutes apart. The only dumber animals I have seen were caribou.

A little surprised by a couple of things . One I wasn't really thinking of some of the exotics and African species when I posed the question so that's an interesting turn. Also as much band width that elk get on this site Im a bit surprised we've gone 6 pages w/o a mention.

Huge difference between Sitka bucks that seldom see people and Columbia bucks that get pushed constantly...

My votes WOULD be cougar and wolves.......

I don't think they are classified as "medium big game".


For YEARS the AGFC claimed that Ark had NO mountain lions (cougar) and yet over the years I've seen a few.

During Hunting Season, I have ONLY seen ONE (1). I was told by a hunting pard that he had seen it and I had SEEN it's sign.

One morning while on stand, I 'just happened' to be looking at the right spot. This cougar stuck its HEAD out of the brush, I raised my rifle and it BACKED up......not to be seen again.

I can't comment on Game animals I've not been around nor hunted. Pressured W T bucks can be VERY spooky and I have gone weeks NOT seeing one - when they were NOCTURNAL..

Jerry

Come to Washington and hunt on a tree farm. Tags are for sale OTC, the season runs about 2.5-3 weeks, and tree farms are everywhere.


Okie John

This. Logging country gets hunted 12 months a year by illegal immigrants and the chronically under-employed folks who live there. You've also got the native hunters who shoot game legally six months out of the year and illegally the other six. Deer, elk, and bears around here know a thing or two about avoiding hunters.


Okie John

One of these years................

I'm not pressing for W T bucks, I'd just like to give one example.

@ 1998 or so I was hunting w/my long time friend and hunting pard. We had seen NO bucks and few does.

One morning I was moving from point A to point B still hunting. It was between 7 -7:30 AM

I just happened to intersect a moving buck headed to bed down for the day !!!!

I shot him w/my 7 RM in the neck at 140 yds, later measured. I took him to a running creek to field dress and then thru in the creek to quickly cool him down. Afterwards I cut his stomach open to see what he'd been eating. To my surprise there was nothing in his stomach except POLK berries.
Everything was P Bs and everything was PURPLE.

That's the first time I saw a stomach FULL of P B (not peanut butter). There were no discernible leaves, twigs, acorns or anything else.
W/in a few yards he would have been in brush where he would not have been visible.

How do I remember so well? He IS the only 9 pt. I have ever killed.

Jerry

My vote would be for a mature blackatail. We hunt all three species here and a mature blacktail has always been the most difficult for me to score on.

I watched a big mature black tail buck literally crawl on its knees across a muskeg like opening keeping his head down as crawled. Craziest thing to watch and I couldn't tell that it was a buck because he kept his head below the grass height. Once he got to the tree line he jumped up and was gone.

This is crazy........

Like the ol bull looks for who is

Willing.

New question which one is the dullest? I want that one.

For spookiest.....

I would have to agree cats would be number one.

Antelope and whitetail does also can be deal busters aka PIA.

Wow Jerry a stomach full of polk berries had to be a real mess . You could paint a barn with that much purple

There were many years that I opened the stomachs of Doe & Bucks to see what they were eating.

Another time a hunting friend killed a very nice 8 pt, we opened his stomach>>>FULL>> white oak acorns. I should have said, WHOLE w.o. acorns. He was between Pine plantation regrowth fixin (gettin ready) to bed up for the day.

The one w/polk berries is the ONLY one I ever saw with many p bs at all.

Jerry

There are 3-4 "magic" days during any particular animal's breeding season in which even the smartest and most wily mature old critter becomes DUMB.

I've been fortunate to capitalize on this a few times with whitetails, 2 Mule-deer, a respectable Antelope, a couple of bears, and one big old fight-scarred coyote.

Day in-Day out, a mature coyote is smarter, sneakier, and tougher to sneak up/catch off-guard and kill than any other mammal I've hunted (deer, elk, moose, antelope, black bear).

Horse & others I don't mean to be smart.

WE (including myself) have talked about Cougar, Wolves, Coyotes, etc. the thread title is about Big Game animals.
Are these 'Game' animals or vermin, predators, etc. ?

In my mind Game Animals are those we EAT.

What do y'all think ?

Jerry

I disagree that eating is a requirement to be included in the definition of a game animal. Here's a list that's regularly accepted as all the big game species in North America.

http://www.superslam.org/super-slam

Okay, No problem.

Thanks

Jerry

The eating criteria may not be so good just ask Doggzapper about eating Cougar. His remark was "Best puzzy I ever ate". I might not go that far but they are delicious like a mix of veal and lamb.

Wariest? What ever is alluding me at the time.

Blacktail because of terrain are tuff. Hunted but never shot one and in fact the only thing I saw with gun in hand was their hooves and only by laying with my head down in the ferns on the Olympic peninsula. I would say any rainforest game like Bongo are going to be tuff. For years it was disputed if these and the Okapi existed. It wasn't until they were regularly hunted with dogs that they were even a very viable option to hunt unless you had weeks to devote to a safari.

I don't think I could say that IF I had ever eaten Cougar ! !

Jerry

I'd second Okie John re mature Columbia blacktails in the PNW (not those pseudo blacktails in California!) We're talking real rain deer.

You can spend the money and tag a big mature mule deer or a large antlered whitetail-- but not a mature large antlered blacktail. There are few guides for rain country blacktails, not because of hunter disinterest nor the scarcity of bucks but because guiding for them is a recipe for failure. One of the best blacktail guides said in his Sportsman Show seminar that he counts any blacktail buck with at least three points on one side to be a trophy for his clients.

I live amid blacktails and hunt them plus mule deer and whitetails every Fall. Like Dancing Bear, my experience is that the blacktails are by far the hardest to tag. There is a reason why hordes of coastal hunters in WA, OR and BC don't bother to hunt blacktails where they live and go east over the mountains every Fall to hunt. Many never hunt their local blacktails. I went to a sport show seminar on deer hunting put on by a man from the coast, looking for blacktail info. He started by saying that all of his info was for hunting mule deer because the blacktails where he lived were so difficult to hunt that he did not bother. I slipped out the back.

Mountain lions? No question in my mind that they win the sneaky prize for North America. Oddly, they often don't act spooked or afraid when a human ever gets a rare look at one of them.

Man I'm eager to do Blacktail. It's going to have to be next year at this point. Seems like every year I find myself saying next year.

Come on out, their an over the counter tag, in Oregon. The fires this year will help hunting in the near future! If these fires keep up the cover will be pockets of forest left!

My vote goes to a western Washington/ NW Oregon blacktail.

After reading the post on Melania's shoes on the Campfire forum, I'd have to say that this cougar is the spookiest critter I've ever encountered. Can you imagine having this creep into your tent at night?

Wolves. Followed by old whitetail does. I know old does that live right in and amongst people that NEVER show themselves. They know people well, know their habits, know their schedules and can tell time.

WT bucks just hang out in a different locale depending on time of year. Spend a little time whee they are living and they get a lot easier.

I know of nothing more man shy than wolves who've been shot at and live around traps. Coyotes are smart and wary, but nothing like a wolf.

Yet the largest come from Oregon. Southern Oregon first, then Marion county second! Yep I'd go to Washington????

Yep that "open" country in Jackson, Josephine, and even lane county county, simply ain't the same.... oh and I live in the B&C world record county... hint

And that's why California isn't even in the equation.... re hint

I dont know if cats are the spookiest or just the stealthiest. Hard to see because when moving on their own they are hunting, and they do most of that at night.

Big mulies will not be seen in the mesquite, prairie grass country especially if there are shallow brushy draws unless you are airborne or its the rut or you are travelling across country and have the rare occasion to accidentally pass right by one. The big ones are nocturnal.

Its the same with big whitetails unless raised with feeders on big, lightly hunted ranches.

I have hunted 3000-5000 acre pastures in rolling prairie in west Texas many times each season for doves, quail, deer and then coyotes and see deer tracks right up to a highway, but you will never see a deer unless its the rut, youre in a helicopter, driving
across country quail hunting and run over one, or call in a coyote and shoot when some are bedded down within nearby and they jump and run at the shot.

In Jan, Feb, or March when times are hard and when mulies have eaten down the food back away from highways and they are in starvation conditions you might see them from the highway particularly in the AM and PM, especially on large lightly hunted ranches with a lot of deer.

I dont even care to try and hunt a big blacktail in the rain forests where they live life dodging cougars.

She would get a bad case of lead poisoning in short order.

By far the spookiest critter i ever ran into in the woods was a black bear. I had worked my way down some pretty steep places off benches on the side of a high ridge in a western state to get down in a high little valley in archery elk season and had no gun.

I hunted up the valley for elk sign until late evening when i ran into a bear feeding on a big cow it had killed in the trail i had to take up and out the side of the valley to get back to camp.

I thought it would run off when it saw me but instead it let me know it would not let me get by it and out of the canyon that night unless it was over its dead body by popping it teeth and grunting "eh,eh,eh,eh" in a rapid manner. When i drilled it, it charged dead at me while i stood readying my little thin belt hatchet.

By the grace of God it fell about 15 yards from me and went to flopping, finally saying goodbye with its death moan.

Thats why I shoot Muzzy 4 fixed blade heads.

I thought I was real happy until I realized I was on an adrenaline rush like i had never experienced and sat down on a log to try and calm down.

That was the spookiest critter i ever dealt with in my life, for sure.

Ah, emulating Stick are we? I knew you admired him.

The sambar.
Dodges tigers for a living so a hunter is not much to deal with.

Seconded by a mature Fallow buck as opposed to a 3-5 year old. Probably on par with a seasoned white tail and not to be confused with park deer found out in the open.

southwestern coues deer

They are the stealtiest for sure, the lions I've encountered in the woods weren't too spooked...

I guess so douche Mike... grin

"Dooshmike"

Get it right

Blacktails can be tough to find, but believe it or not, that is their downfall. By understanding how rigidly they adhere to their patterns of behavior you can predict when and where they'll be. Mostly where, the when is a little more of a challenge. They don't require vast tracts of perfect habitat, they require a few yards of perfect cover, or less. I look for that place that is so stupid no one would hunt it. If there's feed and water nearby, there's probably a deer there, and good chance it is a good buck.

Bears also super predictable. Cougars hard to find, but not particularly spooky. Never hunted wolves, bet that's a tough one. Whitetails are pretty jumpy.

Oregon Roosevelt elk get hunted very hard and are extremely wary, especially in the Cascades where I hunt them. One hunt I did I tracked one to a thicket in an inch of snow. I circled that thicket in a 50 yard circle, cow calling, pulling grass, generally making cow noises, hoping he would reveal himself. As I closed the circle and my scent was about to blow down in the thicket, I assumed he had snuck out in the melting snow and I had missed his tracks leaving. I threw my pack off and was rummaging thru it for tp when he exploded about 15 yards away. I never even saw him. I'd been within a few yards of him for an hour and he held tight, not giving me so much as a chuckle to let me know he was there. Buried in hemlocks in such close proximity you'd think you were crazy to believe he would hold so tight. They are extremely tough to get when they've been hunted like they are here.

This topic comes up relatively often and one common theme is that most people's responses echo what they normally hunt in their locality.

I am no exception...as I truly believe mature mule deer are THE spookiest critters out there. Certainly more so than whitetails of any age. Second place is a lead cow elk.

Cats and wolves are sly as hell but I wouldn't call them particularly spooky. I've seen both sit there and stare at me. Not so with non horney mulies and lead cows. My limited experience with blacktails tells me they're a worthy trophy no doubt, but not as spooky as a seasoned mule deer. They're more sly like cats.

If you've hunted deer very many times you've probably got one or at least seen one, same with Elk, Bears, Wolves, Sheep, Oryx, etc. Just about anything mentioned. BUT, if we include mountain lions, how many people could get one or even see one in a life time without dogs. I guarantee they have seen YOU! If we rule out the cats, it's got to be big Muleys on public land, look at the record books, lots of white tails in the book taken with a bow, how about Muley bucks taken with a bow. Once the bell rings, they are tough! You can bowhunt white tails in the rut, hard to do that with Muleys.

Dick

Hard hunted Whitetail in the piney woods.

First I agree with you about spooky vs sly. There is a difference.

I am in a group of exceptions, not the only one. Since 1976 I have seen an 'aggregate' of ONE
Mtn Lion. The first occasion I saw ONLY the long swooping drooping tail as it crossed a log road.

Yrs later I saw most of a M L's body from the shoulder back.

Lastly, in 2011 I saw a M L's HEAD stuck out of brush then it disappeared.

Never had a shot at one.

Jerry

I wouldn't call a cougar spooky. Spooky is when the animal will light out for parts a long way off. A cougar will hide and often stay put. He's very wary and that's not the same thing.

I've hunted in cougar country for over 50 years and have yet to see a wild one. They're there and hunters with dogs get them but they stay well hidden.
Our SIL is a pilot for Homeland Security. For a few years he flew helicopters for the Border Patrol along the CA-MX border. He has some photos he took from the chopper of a cougar in front of its cave. It's a scroungy old thing but it's still neat to see.

Desert big horn sheep, hands down...

They have an uncanny ability to sense danger, and they can hightail it across the rocks in a flash.

You should try to get a shot at the hybrid pfhackelope. This one is the only specimen in existence as far as I know.

Our whitetails act like they are on crack. Practically crawling out of their skin and hyper-aware of everything! Mule Deer seem chill in comparison. The few black bears I've seen freaked out at the sight of humans and hauled out of there.

As said earlier, a lot depends on how hard the critter is hunted. Our black bears are often pretty casual about having people around. My grandson lip squeaked one to keep it from leaving a few days ago and to give his partner time to get in position for a shot. Then the grandson said “Hey,” to the bear and when it lifted its head at 38 yards, the other hunter shot it.

Incidentally, this thread is like a cordial exchange of real opinions like around a campfire. I'll stick with hard hunted rain country blacktails.

My experience is not as great as some here but I have hunted mulies a lot, in WA, Idaho and British Columbia, whitetails in WA and British Columbia, California blacktails from Los Angeles to the Oregon line, and sauntered around Coues country and eastern hardwoods with binos, plus scouted and went along with hunters in Oregon, Wyoming and Saskatchewan. Have hunted bighorns, Stone, goats, cougar without dogs, lynx, wolves, bow hunted coyotes...

A few observations: We can glass for mule deer and Coues (and sheep) from across a canyon or at distance in most of their ranges. Not so in blacktail country unless you hunt only alpine or recent clearcuts.

True that the big mule deer bucks tend to sneak away rather than bust out, but that is standard for virtually all blacktail.

Another factor is the visibility of the deer's tail. Mule deer cannot hide the white patch on their rump. That has enabled me to spot and tag several bucks in poor light, the most recent of which I spotted in the dark and watched and waited till legal shooting light. Whitetails tend to wave their bright white flag. Blacktails have their white rump patch covered and they don't wave their tail to get your attention. They are HARD to spot.

Go to a prom in Iowa-they're the ones wearing the dresses.

Adult leopard

Jerry

I'm going to go with the average Berkeley student. They are certainly animals, look quite gamey, the males are generally medium but the females can run very large, and two words make them flip out, run screaming, attack viciously, and set things on fire. "I'm white."

Anything on public land..........................................unless you are willing to go to the most extreme, hard to get to parts of public land.

Wolves and I have some history.

Coyotes for sure.