In the Outdoors
Uncommon scents
With Oak Duke

We are all but excluded from the world of scent.

And those of us who avidly pursue the whitetail find that the deer's world of scent is as perplexing to understand, as it is fascinating to study.

When we are fortunate enough to see a buck "work" a scrape, we are observing a very complicated olfactory ritual.

Much more there than just buck sign.

If we could only read it.

Once in a while we are fortunate indeed to be a spectator to this wild and very private moment when a buck is creating an eidolon of himself. This whitetail eidolon is there for all other deer in the area, both bucks and does, to perceive, even when the buck, himself is down the ridge, or in an adjacent woodlot a mile away.

An eidolon in Greek mythology is a person's phantom-double. And whitetail bucks bring all their glands in to play, literally placing scent from head to toe to create their own "phantom-double" at a scrape.

Bucks need the "overhanging branch" at a scrape to hold the scent from the different and unique glands on their head.

Often overlooked and underrated is the whitetail buck's Forehead Gland. This major scent producer is located between the buck's antler burrs. On older, more mature bucks, this gland secretes an oily, almost waxy substance.

The Forehead Gland may even be stimulated enough to create the impression that the buck is wearing a "hair piece," especially during the rut.

And when we see rubs on saplings, the torn up aspect to the bark and cambium layer of the tree may be in fact a visual incidental. The important part of the rub is the scent left by the Forehead Gland, more so than the visual aspect of the rub we see.

Bucks are observed rubbing this gland on the Overhanging Branch, over the scrape, and often on other nearby branches too.

And bucks also "mouth" and even seem to chew the Overhanging Branch, depositing their saliva and scent from their mouth. Some of the most avid deer hunters who utilize Mock Scrapes, or manmade scrapes to attract bucks, have even taken swabs of saliva from dead deer, saved them in plastic sealed sandwich bags and used them to more effectively replicate a scrape.

A third gland on the buck's head is the Preorbital Gland. Scrape watchers notice the intensity and attentive focus a buck exudes as it works this gland, located at the corner of the scrape-maker's eye, into the Overhanging branch.

Some bucks seen at scrapes seem to spend more time rubbing the Preorbital gland and mouthing the Overhanging branch, than pawing the soil.

The Tarsal Glands are the most commonly known glands by deer hunters, and are located on the back legs, just above the hock. As the rut approaches the Tarsal Glands become increasingly dark and musky smelling.

Tarsal glands have been packaged and commercially sold to hunters and are used with success. Other enterprising deer hunters freeze the Tarsal Glands taken from a buck on a previous year, frozen and brought out of the freezer for use during the following deer season.

Bucks put their back legs together at the scrape and urinate, taking the Tarsal Gland scent, along with other urine and internal glandular secretions down into the scrape. And bucks often deposit their droppings in the scrape too.

Bucks paw the ground to kick back the leaf litter on the forest floor under the Overhanging Branch, exposing bare ground and at the same time depositing glandular secretions from two separate glands, one on their legs and the other located in their feet, between their toes.

The Metatarsal Gland is as mysterious as it is obvious. It is located on the outside of each hind leg, a little over an inch in length. Scent from this gland can be left at the scrape during the urination phase in the same fashion as the Tarsal Gland, on the inside of the leg.

The Interdigital Gland is found between the toes of a whitetail. When the deer is threatened or perceives itself in danger, scent is deposited when it stamps its foot.

And when making a scrape, the Interdigital Gland's secretions are "pawed" into the dugout portion of the scrape.

Deer lure manufacturers are not only produce the widely used "estrus" or sex hormone-based lures from captive whitetails, but are now marketing Interdigital Gland lures too.

The creation of the scrape with its Overhanging Branch is to deer hunters, a visual marker that a whitetail buck has passed.

But to a deer with its deep and profound olfactory understanding and perception, the whitetail eidolon must be much more, a phantom replication of a whitetail buck.

Oak Duke is pulisher of the Wellsville Daily Reporter and writes a regular column on the outdoors.