Be a Part of Maine’s ‘Rut Watch': Study Deer and Make a Difference

The lengths the state used to go to for tracking deer is kinda nuts.

There was a time when the Maine Dept. of Fisheries and Wildlife had to go to some pretty major extremes to try and wrap their brains around the breeding habits of deer in Maine. Basically, they'd have to find does that had been hit by cars, and look for unborn fetuses to gauge where things were headed year to year.

Read More: Deer Season in Maine Can You Legally Keep & Eat a Deer You Hit

Not only was it a pretty grisly task, it was time consuming and required substantial manpower. It was always this way until 2018. Then the MDIFW had the brilliant idea of asking Maine's hunters and hikers and outdoorsy types to help them do some of the heavy lifting. It's now known as the Rut Watch.

You're already in the woods anyway...

While hikers and woods walkers will certainly be a help, the hunters are out there actively looking for their own personal data about deer habits. So why not try to just include all these folks to get an idea of when the peak breeding times are for deer in Maine. The tasks on your part are super simple.

The MDIFW is looking for three things: Location, date & time, and the behavior you witnessed. They're hoping you'll possibly see bucks mounting does, sparring, scraping trees, and back rubbing, among other behaviors. There's even a link to submit your findings. You can send it all right here.

What if I have questions about what I'm seeing.

There's a pretty descriptive FAQ right at the Maine.gov page where the Rut Watch lives. They give you all the tools you may need for properly identifying the tree rubs, and how to tell when they're fresh... that kind of thing. So even if you're just looking casually while out in the woods with your dog, you can still help.

Read More: Scientists Worry a Maine Deer Disease May Mutate & Infect Humans

There's no doubt that deer in Maine aren't really struggling, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't keep an eye on how they're doing. Lord knows, in some areas they border on being pests, and hunting laws constantly try to adapt to what best suits the population. So hopefully, with all this help, we'll never have to worry about them.