Was reading Dr. Charles E Kay's article, Predation And The Ecology Of Fear in the latest Muley Crazy. A very interesting read. It makes me think that is what I'm experiencing this year in my area. All I know is I can't find a deer if my life depended on it. I've been trying to get my daughter her first buck and thus far we've hunted 10 days over the last month and have only seen 10 deer. Only one buck, a little forky that was about 200 yards away with less than 5 mins of light left. With iron sights, not a shot she was comfortable with, so we let it walk. I scouted every weekend all summer long and all I saw for my efforts was a small 4 point, a forky and a handful of does. Lots of sign though. Everywhere I have gone, I've got tracks, big and small. But everywhere I've gone there has been wolf tracks too. We have hit the high elevation, low elevation and everywhere in between. We are hitting areas that historically have always held deer for me. This year, nothing up moving during daylight. It seems they are in an extreme noctural pattern. Anyone else ever experience anything like this? This is a first for me. Last season was tuff, but when hunting big bucks, I expect that. I heard lots of rumours of locals that couldn't tag out on meat bucks. The talk was the wolves ate them all. I figured I'd wait to see what the spring turned up before I jumped to that call. With a very very mild winter, the spring ground was plugged full of deer. I saw more deer during the spring bear hunt then I ever have. But then July came in and I lost them competetly. They are sticking tight to the heavy timber. We've always had wolves to deal with, but in recent years they really have gotten thick. Do you think I might be experiencing the ecology of fear that Dr. Kay was talking about? If so, what do you think will trigger them to break this pattern? Will they start acting normal if we get a good serious dump of winter like they are predicting? I would appreciate any thoughts that you serious muley nuts could throw at me.