So, I was fortunate enough to talk a little hunting with the head Boss at work the other day and we got to talking about scent control and all of that good stuff. He was saying that he read that the majority of our scent comes from our mouth. I believe this is true, but then he said that deer can sense we are a carnivore because of the things we eat and the scent coming out of our breath. He said not necessarily that we are humans, but that we ate meat, which puts them on alert. I have to admit it makes sense. What do you guys think? Can deer smell well enough to differentiate carnivores from omnivores?
I don't think we will ever know for sure....but I find it hard to believe. Logical but a little farfetched IMO. I think the smell that gives away carnivores (yotes and such) is the smell coming from their bodies...Yotes reek, not sure their breath is what tips them off. I agree 100% that I too believe the vast majority of human scent comes from your mouth..which is why I make a conscious effort to breathe through my nose at all times...I know it is futile since the air comes from the exact same passage, but I can't help but think it helps a little. I think 90% of the scent control game is psyching yourself out into believing it is working...and this works for me. LOL
I eat peanuts and peanut bars. Stuff like that. They seem attracted to my breath. Maybe I'm baiting :d .
I actually thought the DDW stuff tasted like a dull candy spray...I went through a whole bottle in about 2 weeks of hunting the rut. LOL
I'm going to give gumoflage a try this next season. I don't necessarily agree they can detect our diet from our breaths, because like Jeff, I think the first sign of human (whether it's mouth odor or body odor), they KNOW somethings not right, and that's all it takes.
Bruce, im still laughing at your comment!! Great humor! I heard that a deer smells 25,000 times better than a human. However, I have seen them nose to nose with foxes, and the deer would always spook the fox away. 100% on the mouth idea, but im not so sure about the carnivore comment. I just think they detect foreign smells and either spook or investigate further. Who knows?
If I was the size of a fox... I wouldn't mess with a deer either. I have been kicked by a few animals, I can't see a fox winning that battle.
I believe they can smell human.. I'm sure the human mouth is a stink bomb but our sweat is as well. If you travel to other countries the people there have different odors and this is due to what they consume on a regular basis. i.e Asian people say Americans smell like fried food. I think its pretty hard to mask our scent.. i think you would have to change your diet for the year or even longer to really get your scent to change.. Anyone feel like becoming a Vegan?. Here's is another question... Do deer remember smells? and if so, for how long? I had an experience with a buck a while back that made me question this very thing. I only had a week left on my trip and i wanted to fill my tag,plus the wind was cooperating... to do this i over hunted one of my better stands that had a ok 8 pt coming into it. I saw him 2 days in a row but never got a shot and on the third day when he walked within about 60-70 yds he scent checked the air and left and then did the same on the 5th day. It seemed to me like he was not necessarily smelling for danger (since i never took a shot at him, and never winded me)... but more of a specific scent (i wear a scent blocker suit) I will tell ya this much. I learned never to sit in a stand more than 2 days.
Whether they can detect a human because of our meat eating diet I don't know.I tend to think there is more to it.I have seen deer come through area's shortly after coyotes have come through,and have seen this a number of times.We just stink to them,I believe regardless of what we are consuming,can you mitigate it through a conscientious scent control program? I believe you can.I completely agree that an awful lot of odor comes out of our mouths,I avoid very spicy foods or food prepared with a lot of garlic when I will be hunting the next day.I gargle with Vanishing hunter or baking soda and water before every hunt and I also breathe through my nose when deer are in the vicinity.I don't believe we expel nearly as much odor when we breathe through our noses.I have no science to support that though.
One of the most mind boggling things I've "learned" on these boards is that deer can smell a doe & how close she is to estrous. They can smell the faintest hint of human and be gone. But go ahead and piss all over thier scrape & your tree cause they can't tell the difference.
In trapping, real meat fed coyote/fox urine is more desirable than the urine from foxes/yotes fed dog kibble which is mostly grain. There is scientific proof that critters can smell the difference. (I know of a test using rabbits as the sniffers.. they were repelled by the scent of meat fed critters vs. the same animals fed a meatless diet) I used to go on a mostly meatless diet when I deer hunted to test this. Then I decided that I'm too much of a meat eater and gave up on that. Mostly I rely on scent control, playing the wind and lots of gumoflage.
Question is... Does it matter? They react the same to vegetarians as they do to omnivores. I've known a few vegies and the deer ran from them just as soon as they did from me.
Mexicans have a different smell to them I think because of the spicy foods they always eat. I've also heard that they (Mexicans) say the same thing about people who drink or consume lots of dairy products. They say they have a sour milk smell to them. How do deer know the difference between meat eaters and plant eaters though, don't seem possible to me. You would think that they either smell human scent or they don't. Guess what though, no one will ever know.