Advanced blood tracking training is paying off for this outstanding tracking team

by Darren Doran

I took a call from an experienced hunter who had made a good hit on a buck last evening, but bumped him out of his bed and across a road. The hunter had followed good blood to a dead fall and green briar thicket and found multiple beds there very close together. After he had put the buck up he left the area. This is usually a good sign and I figured we would find the deer dead right on the other side of the road and I told the hunter that. Being somewhat superstitious I certainly jinxed myself with that statement. 

We met at 7:30 next morning and went to the hit site. There had been turkeys everywhere and they were right in front of us. Theo got a whiff of them, and I corrected him hard right away. This was our first exposure to them this year and I needed him to know I wanted nothing to do with them. We started tracking and the blood was just as the hunter said. We tracked through to the road, which was so busy that I carried Theo across. I set him down on the other side, which was an old dilapidated house. Theo went around back and across the front yard and into the woods. After some searching he showed me some blood and we were off tracking. I kept looking ahead expecting to see the buck at any minute but it didn’t happen and I hadn’t seen any blood in a while. We were tracking to a thicket and I thought this is where he is. Theo checked all the runs into it but didn’t take a line. He went back into the woods then across a rail road track into a brushy field next to an occupied house. We didn’t have any weapons because the road we crossed was the dividing line of two hunting zones. The hunter didn’t have a permit to hunt on this side of the road. I really didn’t think this dear was alive anyway so it didn’t matter to me. The way Theo was working I actually thought the deer would be in this field.

Theo searched every inch of this area and went to the backyard of the house and started pulling across the mowed yard. I told the hunter that we couldn’t cross without permission, but I would pick up Theo and walk down the tracks and set him down in a controlled search on the other side of the yard. Theo worked the brush along the yard and in about 10 yards took a hard right into the woods. We hadn’t seen blood in a long while but he was tracking like he does when he’s got it so I went with him.

All of a sudden the hunter called out that he found blood. He had found a pin drop on a yellow maple leaf. I don’t know if he was good or just lucky but it didn’t matter -- we had the deer. Just when I was feeling good I looked up and the woods looked like someone had gone through it with a leaf blower. The turkeys had torn this part of the woods apart, there was no leaf left untouched. This worried me more than Theo and he tracked through it like it wasn't there. 

We were soon heading back into thick swampy brush and green briars. I thought any time now the leash will stop and he’ll be on the deer, but it didn’t happen. He did track to a bed with blood in it and I knew we had to be close. I was working through the briars and all of a sudden the leash stopped. Finally I thought we got him. I worked around a corner in the briars and Theo’s standing on the bank of a river. There was blood at the bank and Theo jumped in. He went right under and I knew it was deep. He popped up and swam back to the bank. There was no way across. We would have to go back out of the woods to the train tracks and cross the trestle to get on the other side. 

I marked the spot on the GPS and hung a ribbon but before I left I told Theo to “search”. I wanted to make sure the deer crossed and didn’t back track away from the deep water. Theo went up and down the briar choked bank and didn’t find anything he liked. He came back to the crossing so we made our way out of the wood and to the trestle. I carried Theo across and we started to navigate to the spot where the deer had crossed. 

The rail road had cut all the trees at the bottom of the tracks and killed all the vegetation on the slopes. It was nasty but we found a spot we could get down to the river and we slid down the bank of the tracks. We got to about where the crossing was and I started Theo. He went down a run away from the river and in twenty yards the leash stopped. I wasn’t even paying attention and I walked right up to Theo and the deer. 

When I called out “I got em” I don’t think the hunter believed me. This track was almost 2 miles including the searching and the river crossing. I believe the deer actually traveled 9^ths of a mile before dying. When we gutted this deer it was hit through 1 lung, through the center of the liver, and the 2 inch rage had cut the back lobe of the second lung. The deer was dead for a while. I firmly believe the rut plays an important part on their ability to stay alive when they should be dead.

Those of you who know me from this blog know I’m big on training. Some of the things I train for I used today. Theo is 2 ½ now and try as I might I can’t duplicate on a training line the experience he’s getting this season. The only way to finish a dog is to get him in the field and work him. This is his second tracking season and we’ve taken 39 calls so far. We’re getting to the point that we’re becoming a true team. He knows what is going on when we cross roads. He understands when we have a live deer why we stop and wait. He understands how to restart a line after he’s been picked up and set down. He knows how to do a controlled search. He knows how to stay with the right deer and search till he finds the right deer. He knows how to accept my help when he needs it, and I know what is going through his mind while he’s working. This season is going to truly develop and cement Theo’s foundation as a tracking dog and "us" as a team. 

Recovery #27 of the 39 tracks.

New Jersey Trackers will be present at the 2nd Annual New Jersey Wild Outdoor Expo

Come and meet New Jersey Trackers who we will have a booth at the 2nd Annual New Jersey Wild Outdoor Expo under the banner of the United Blood Trackers on September 17 and 18 at the Colliers Mills Wildlife Management Area in Jackson Township, Ocean County. The WILD Outdoor Expo is a terrific way for anyone, including families, to learn about New Jersey's great outdoors.

 The Expo will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, rain or shine. Admission and parking are free and so are most activities at the Expo, except for a few that are offered for a modest fee. Some activities and events require pre-registration.

The WILD Outdoor Expo is sponsored by the DEP's Division of Fish and Wildlife, and Division of Parks and Forestry, the Green Acres Program, and the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey and is partially funded through a grant from the Weatherby Foundation International.

For more information including a complete listing of programs and directions to the Colliers Mills Wildlife Management Area, visit www.wildoutdoorexpo.com.
 

Below is article written by Darren Doran and Cathy Blumig. It was published in the September issue of the NJ Federated Sportsmen News.

 

On the Trail to Better Deer Recovery

by Darren Doran and Cathy Blumig

Darren Doran is shown here with his dog Karl after tracking this nice buck last November for a satisfied hunter. Photo courtesy D. Doran.

Time and again, studies have shown that only a small percentage of deer that hunters have attempted to bring down are not recovered. While this well-established history of excellent deer recovery rates is something of which all deer hunters can be proud, the small percentage of animals not recovered is a source of consternation nonetheless, gnawing as it does at the core of hunting’s ethical obligation to the animals that are pursued. Recently, however, a new door has been opened, which further diminishes the number of uncovered deer. Enter New Jersey’s experimental leashed tracking dog program.

For the past three hunting seasons, a study examining the use of leashed tracking dogs has been underway to help recover that small percentage of deer that hunters have had difficultly finding by themselves. This experimental program has been carried out under special permit from the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife. The long-term goal of this study is to gather enough data to be able to show that qualified handler/dog teams are a useful tool in deer recovery, and that present legislation restricting their use should be modified.

During the 2011-2012 deer hunting seasons there will be twelve certified handler/dog tracking teams spread throughout New Jersey. Each team has been certified by United Blood Trackers (UBT) to perform at the UBT1 level. This level indicates that the team has demonstrated success with an unmarked deer track that is 400 yards long with two 90-degree turns and one wound bed. The track is at least two hours old and has eight ounces of deer blood along its length. The dog and handler must follow the track and find the deer part that had been placed in the field by handler/tracking dog evaluators at the end. A strict protocol is followed by participants for recovery efforts as part of the program. Before one of the certified handler/dog tracking teams even steps foot on a deer trail, the Regional Law Enforcement Office of the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife must first be notified. The hunter must have permission to search any properties where searching is to occur, prior to entering those properties. Also, no firearms or archery equipment are permitted to be carried outside of legal hunting hours.

At the conclusion of the search, a track report is completed by the handler and signed by the hunter. This track report records data including the hunter’s name and address, location of the track, the age of the track, and type of weapon used. It also records the name of the handler and dog used on the track, and whether or not the deer was recovered. This data is collected by all the trackers and submitted to Dr. Len Wolgast who then analyses the data and submits a report to the Division at the end of the season. These trackers are all volunteers, and provide this service at no charge to the hunter. There is a referral system among the trackers, and every effort is made to accommodate the hunters requesting this service.

For more information about this program contact Darren Doran at Darren@rvwsinc.com. For information about tracking dogs in general check out the national organization, United Blood Trackers at unitedbloodtrackers.org. Time will tell if certified leashed tracking dogs and handlers will be as effective in New Jersey at increasing the deer recovery rate as they have proven to be in other states. The mere effort to investigate this question is in itself a fulfillment of the ethical obligations to the animals that hunters pursue and to hunting itself.

Interesting arrow sign - how was this deer hit and wounded

Andy Bensing writes:

Here are some pictures of an arrow I found laying in a large, bloodless bed, 750 meters from the hit site, where we jumped a buck that had apparently been laying in that bed for 46 hours. At first I thought the rings on the arrow shaft were rubber bands from an expandable but the hunter was using a fixed blade. The arrow actually had 3 thin rings on it like the skinny one on the left and one fat ring like you see on the right. The missing rings and the broken off pieces of the rings still visible in the photos were destroyed by me as I picked at them trying to figure out what they were. After I determined they were not bloody rubber bands I thought they were pieces of muscle but when I chipped them off, (they were very hard and stuck to the arrow) they dissolved in my fingers like blood when I moistened them with saliva. The arrow was not broken but had been pulled out of the insert, which I assumed was imbedded in a bone in the deer. The shaft was clean with no signs of blood except the rings but there was some blood on all 3 fletchings. There was a small drip of very fresh brown juice on a dry leaf in the bed, and my dog went hot as we tracked out of the bed. The hunter did not see the arrow hit the deer and the easily seen blood he tracked till it stopped at 600 meters was bright red.

Click on the picture to enlarge

I am open to suggestions but after thinking about the whole picture I surmised that the deer was hit in the large bowl just in front of the left rear leg and the broad head likely exited the flank on the other side and reentered the deer imbedding itself onto the femur bone of the far side leg. The reentry into the inside thigh muscle on the far side would account for the good muscle blood trail and its sudden stop. I believe the deer laid with the arrow in him for a long time. The rings were created by small amounts of blood pooling and drying at the juncture of the arrow shaft on the skin. The deer would lay still for awhile, the blood would dry, and then the deer would shift a little which would move the arrow in or out a bit and a new ring would be created. I think the buck eventually worked the arrow out with his mouth and that explained why the blood on the fletchings was thicker at the fletching/shaft juncture but clean on most of the fletching body.

We chased this buck for over a mile and never got close enough to see him. We had to stop several times to get permission to cross yards in the suburban neighborhood. After tracking him as far as we did and with daylight gone we decided to give up the chase. In big woods I would have just kept pushing him, hoping to wear him down or perhaps waited till morning and got back on him again. Tracking at night in NJ in the suburbs with lights is not the best idea. The police show up quick and knocking on doors at night for permission does not work well either. I am sure this large bowl shot deer will eventually die but it might not be for several more days. This call was 1 ½ hours from my house and I had other fresh calls to do in the morning so I did not go back.