Summer Flight Behavior of White-Tailed Deer in Two Adirondack Forests

The summer flight behavior of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) was studied on two areas-one hunted and one unhunted-in the Adirondack Mountains of northern New York. Flight distance, gait, tail position, and blowing were observed along forest roads and around one lakeshore. Flight distances for antlered deer, exclusive of spikehorns, were significantly (P 0.05) longer on the hunted area. Both antlered and antlerless deer ran and held their tails up in flight more often along the roadsides than around the lake, perhaps indicating greater sensitivity to approach in vehicle than to approach in canoe. The influence of hunting on flight behavior and observability of deer is discussed.