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Hello all
Anyone got a good handle on why deer love moors, aka swamps or peat bogs)?
Is it the availability of water? (I think that's unlikely)
Is it the feed? (Maybe?)
Is it that swamp water gives the feed a different taste from the usual feed? (Unlikely in my view)
Or is it hunter error and the swamp just shows normal levels of deer movement much more clearly than the forest floor? (Well, that's always possible...)
Thanks in advance.
I'd say it's because they love wallowing and a peaty bog is a pretty good place to create a wallow or at least have a crack at it
High growth rates and more plant species diversity in the edges of wet areas
My observation is deer like to stand in the wet / swamp and nibble around the edges
Another consideration is it's a bugger butchering deer that you shoot in a swamp
And pretty funny packing it out
Most of the good fertile land is farmed and deer are restricted to poor mineral deficient ground on Doc or the back of farms so they will focus on any area that produces feed with a higher mineral content. Drainages / swamps that concentrate silt and minerals coming down from the hills above, high gully heads where rocks are cracked by frost in the winter are two areas. Proper peat bogs / moorland are sour and dont grow much and are not favoured by deer. The minerals are locked or bound by the low PH and cannot move to plants
its also relatively safe place for them to live,other than extraction via helicopter,they have pretty much all the cards stacked in their favour living in a wet noisy to move through area,the ywill know where the dry spots to sleep are,they know where the easy to travel pathways are,the ywill rest up in area with good airflow and will have good idea where any danger will come from.
Thanks for the replies, gentlemen. Much appreciated.
I'm going with all of you being correct. And the old 'they like it, that's just how it goes'.