FOREST AND STREAM 
Distinguishing Features of Minnesota Deer 
ENHAPS one feature that dis¬ 
tinguishes the Minnesota, or 
common white-tail deer, from 
many of the other larger game 
animals is its wonderful adapt¬ 
ability to live and thrive within 
the limits of semi-settled dis¬ 
tricts. Unlike the moose, they 
are little afraid of smoke from a settler’s cabin, 
the sound of an ax, or even the nearby rattle 
oi a freight train. In fact deer are not afraid 
of certain noises, while other sounds may disturb 
them greatly. Engineers and firemen who run 
through the North bush country have often re¬ 
ported deer lying so close to the tracks that the 
train fairly brushes them as it passes. Often the 
deer absolutely refuse to move from their beds 
when they see the headlight of a train, and many 
a fine deer has been killed because it was too 
careless to get off the track. 
And yet the deer is a very timid animal. Those 
who have hunted them can give ample proof of 
this. The least sound of a snapping twig will 
send them off in alarm. The faintest scent of 
a man may speed them to distant cover; yet 
sometimes a careless tenderfoot walking through 
the woods may get very close to them before 
they flash their flag. The amateur they may re¬ 
gard much the same as the freight train. It is 
a case of having located the sound and being 
thoroughly familiar with it. If they lie still and 
hide he will probably pass by. The freight train 
made lots of noise, but it went by and never hurt 
them. The tenderfoot likewise may make con¬ 
siderable noise when walking through the woods. 
The deer hear him and probably smell him; yet 
they are not afraid. They know where he is; 
they know what to expect; and they will not 
move unless he happens to walk right onto them. 
On the other hand they might fly at the least 
sound from a more skillful hunter. This fact may 
suggest why the tenderfoot often sees the most 
deer; 1 ut only occasionally gets one. 
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In speaking of deer being killed by the trains, 
I oi:ce had an opportunity to be very near such 
a killing. It was in the month of October in 
Aitken County, Minnesota, two miles east of the 
town of Tamarack. Pardner and I were walk¬ 
ing down the track one morning, and as we 
neared a place where short clover formed a feed¬ 
ing ground for the deer (between the walls of 
t ees on either side of the track) our attention 
was drawn to a four year old buck, which had 
been killed by the train. His sleek body had 
been dragged along for some distance, yet the 
hind quarters were little damaged. 
In pondering over the cause of this accident 
we hit upon many theories; but the most plau¬ 
sible seemed to be—that wild deer, no matter 
how alert and keen of senses, cannot be expected 
to possess reasoning powers which might govern 
the action of a human being, in a like situation. 
For instance—they cannot be blamed for not 
knowing the difference between lying down in 
the middle of the track, or from lying a short 
distance to one side. Hence the result. It may 
be that the blinding headlight and the roar of 
the train gives them a sort of adventure, which 
they like to indulge in. But the question of deer 
being killed by trains, is of course, a minor one, 
and I mention it merely to demonstrate that deer 
are not afraid of certain kinds of noises; and that 
the sound of axes, smell of smoke etc. are not 
the things that drive the deer out,—providing 
they have the other “natural” advantages. 
Some of these natural advantages seem to be: 
cover, feed, shelter and above all else, a certain 
amount of wild, inaccessable places where they 
can take refuge from the hunters, and breed, 
unmolested. A fertile farming country, where 
all the land is available for agriculture, is natur¬ 
ally a hard place for the hunted wild venison 
to exist. 
There has been considerable discussion as to 
whether deer at the present time are on the in¬ 
crease or decrease. It might not be out of place 
here to say a word for Minnesota, in this con¬ 
nection. That the southern and central parts of 
the north-star state has very few deer, I will not 
attempt to deny. Fifty years ago there were 
lots of deer in the central part of Minnesota, 
today that land is occupied by fertile farms to 
such an extent that even the prairie-chicken has 
a hard time to exist. On the other hand, almost 
the entire northern part of this state was form¬ 
erly a solid mass of green, pine forests. At that 
time, old settlers claim that moose and caribou 
were plentiful in the north counties, while deer 
were more abundant in the central counties. The 
advent of the lumberman, and the gradual de¬ 
struction of the best of the big timber, (by log¬ 
ging and forest fires) gave an entirely different 
aspect to northern Minnesota, especially so as 
regards the deer. In the final analysis, deer seem 
to have increased in numbers in northern Minne¬ 
sota, since fifty years back; while in the central 
and southern parts they have practically disap¬ 
peared. Moose, though fairly numerous in some 
parts, seem to have gradually decreased since the 
semi-disappearance of the big pines while caribou 
are almost extinct. 
Different authorities have placed the approxi¬ 
mate number of deer in Minnesota at from thirty 
to sixty thousand; while the total number of 
deer in the United States has been estimated at 
0117 
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about five hundred thousand. The number of moose 
in Minnesota is probably in the neighborhood of 
eight thousand; while caribou I should say about 
two hundred head, possibly not that many, al¬ 
though they are reported coming over the line 
since the establishment of the big “Superior 
Game and Forest Preserve.” Possibly in former 
years, when deer roamed over a greater area of 
uninhabited land, there were more deer than 
there are today; but those deer we cannot bring 
back, and I take it, we should concern ourselves 
at the present time with what we have and give 
them every means for protection and propagation, 
that the supply shall never decrease, but that there 
shall be a movement for the gradual and steady 
increase. 
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