Thread: how long before red deer return to pattern after spooked?

I do not know the answer but here is what I would suggest is the case from observing there behaviour on my farm over the last seventeen years. The flight instinct is deeply ingrained and if you have spooked a deer and it has gapped it, it will stop and check for the threat once it believes it is a safe distance away. If it still perceives danger it will gap it again. Once it has put sufficient distance between itself and it's perceived threat it will settle but remain wary for quite some time but within an hour or so it will slip back in to normal activity. Certainly after a period of sleep it will not awaken still harbouring any concerns of a threat.

Translating this to the wild I would not imagine it to be any different. That said the issue with return to the scene of the incident or immediate area will be the potential for leaving of scent odour markers left by the hunter and the fleeing deer that may deter deer (not just the one that gapped it) from return. The time for this to dissipate will depend much on environmental factors (e.g. if it pissed down with rain the time elapse period would be much shorter than if it had not).