Determine Sex of Deer from Tracks

It IS possible to determine from a set of tracks whether the deer you are tracking is a doe (female) or a buck (male).  And, it's actually pretty simple if you know a few facts about deer.

First, you have to know what a deer track looks like.  Deer leave a track that looks like the outline of a heart.

Next, you have to know the direction of travel.  Deer are moving toward the "pointy" end of the heart.  So in the above example, the deer is traveling toward the top of this post, or up.

Here is an actual photo of deer tracks in the wild so you can get a better idea.  Again, this deer is traveling up, or towards the top of this page.  (It is also clear that this deer was STANDING, not walking - well clear enough to me.  Read on to find out why I know that).

Sometimes if the ground is soft or if the deer is traveling really fast (jumping), the track left will show the deer's dew claws at the rear of the direction traveling, like so:

The two little "marks" at the back of the heart are the dew claw prints.

This does not change anything.  This is still a deer print and the deer is still traveling up.

Third, you need to understand how deer walk.  Deer are diagonal walkers and ALMOST put their rear feet down in the exact location of the front feet as they move (that's why the deer two pics up was standing, not walking).  So, it can appear that they are only leaving ONE left side footprint and ONE right side footprint.  Some hunters can mistake this ONE LARGE track for a huge buck. Don't be fooled.  There are TWO tracks there where the front and rear foot came down ALMOST on top of one another.

So, if you know (1) these are deer tracks; (2) direction of travel, and you have (3) more than a single print, then you can determine the left side from the right side.  Once you know whether the tracks are left or right, you now know sex based on the location of the rear foot.  How?  Easy.

Females have a wider rear end versus their shoulders due to the birth canal.
Males have a wider front than rear to allow them to carry their antlers and strengthen their neck for fighting.  Well that, and they also do not have a birth canal.

Thus, a female will leave tracks where the rear foot is OUTSIDE the front foot.  Wider in back.
A male will leave tracks where the rear foot is INSIDE the front foot.  Wider in front.

Here are two examples.  The below picture shows 2 sets of deer prints.  The blue is the FRONT foot and red indicates the BACK foot.  The arrow shows the direction of travel.

Therefore, the top deer is a doe (rear foot OUTSIDE front foot) and the bottom deer is a buck (rear foot INSIDE the front foot).

Hopefully you can now see why it's critical that you have more than one single track as you must know if you're looking at the right or left side of the deer.

Size alone will help, but is not fool proof.  A large doe and a small buck can leave the same sized track.

I have been taught that it IS possible to determine sex from a single track, but I do not possess that skill.  More Dirt Time will be required for that (shout out to all my Tracker friends who can do so!).

Here's one last example to prove all my points.  Below is a picture of a deer track.  There are TWO prints in this picture.  The FRONT foot print (as called out by the arrow) has ALMOST been obliterated by the rear foot print, but it's still there.  The print you can see clearly is the REAR foot.

Picture of a walking deer - two visible foot prints.

So, can you tell LEFT from RIGHT in this picture?  I cannot.  I need one more set of prints to tell me.
If this is the LEFT print, then we have a DOE (rear foot OUTSIDE of front foot).
If this is the RIGHT print, then we have a BUCK (rear foot INSIDE of front foot).

Hope that helps you is some way.  And I hope that helps convince you that in my previous post that I knew I was tracking a doe - which was verified when I got to the woods.

Post a comment if you think something is not clear enough and I'll try to explain better.