I've seen this too! One of us has to try to dig it up somewhere.
Here's one between older and younger bucks in Delaware. I'm sure we could dig up the scholarly publication if needed. Sorry it's a little dated, the deer may have changed behaviors since then.
www.deerassociation.com
Scroll down to "Learning the hard way" to get the gist if ya don't want to read the whole article.
I take issue with this part of that article:
Maybe old bucks use wetlands more frequently simply because all the young bucks that didn’t use those areas never became old bucks! If they are truly learning though, which seems likely, those lessons must be occurring the hard way. Bucks are much more solitary than does during the fall, and there is no dominant, wise mentor to show a young buck the ropes like the matriarchs in the doe groups. A buck shifting the way he uses the landscape as he grows older is almost certainly the result of one too many close calls or bad experiences.
The words in bold are a complete leap. We went from doing good science (putting collars on deer and just observing their movements...pretty objective) to bad (assuming something was taking place because it "seems likely") very quickly. We went from, "deer do a thing," to, "it seems likely they do a thing because x," to, "they do a thing because x, and it's because y." Big jumps there.
If they could say, "Buck #007 walked a certain route through the woods up until October 15 during his 4th hunting season, on which day we noticed him relocate rapidly to a nearby swamp and stay there several days, after which he never used that route again and instead took the long way round through the swamp..." then that would appear to be clear cut evidence of learning taking place. As it is, nothing in the article indicates that their study found any evidence that old bucks in wetlands was due to anything more than what they speculated in the first sentence, "the young bucks that didn't use those areas never became old bucks."
2nd issue which I discussed last time this article was brought up is why do only the old bucks learn? Why do old does not move to the swamps? Are they not getting shot at in the study area? I'm going to assume that's the case, because if they're being shot at they should be learning too. Sex difference should not factor in otherwise. Maybe it's a regional thing, because in my state we have a doe-a-day limit (used to be 2) from October til February. I've educated WAY more does by way of a little bloodletting or close haircut than bucks. Maybe that's why I observe just as many or more spooky does.
This paragraph also stands out to me:
The first observation that stood out was just how much difference there was between each individual, no matter if it was a buck, doe, mature or immature deer. Hunters spend countless hours watching videos, listening to podcasts, and reading magazine articles like this one to better puzzle out why deer do the things they do. While an understanding of general patterns can certainly give you a valuable advantage in the deer woods, it’s important to remember the deer don’t decide how to behave by watching a video, listening to a podcast, or reading a magazine. For instance, while the deer in our study generally avoided roads, many individuals actually selected for areas closer to roads, including a few of our mature bucks. They were not supposed to do that according to what we know about deer behavior, but they did it anyway. Maybe they were using more urban areas as a strategy to escape hunting pressure, or maybe they just didn’t know any better. Whatever the reason, we saw the same variability in selection between individual deer for all cover types we measured, and in all different age and sex classes.
Basically, deer can be random. They didn't really quantify how random. But apparently, even amongst smart-ole-bucks, there are some who don't do what they're supposed to do. I've been saying this for a while. I've killed plenty of deer that were not "playing by the rules" and moving in ways that advocates of cyber scouting say they should. Seems to water down any theory that says mature bucks consistently as a group learn better hunter avoidance strategies as they age.
I like the article. I'd love to see more of the data they acquired doing the study. I've been on a kick watching videos the Southern Outdoorsmen have made of radio collar bucks getting tracked on aerials for months at a time. Radio collar studies are really interesting to me. I'm kinda interested and kinda skeptical about the promised "Athena" phase of Spartan Forge, which is supposed to eventually be able to project deer movements across a landscape based on data from these studies cross-referenced with historic weather data. But the questions asked and answered are:
How much variation was there between individual deer in the way they used the landscape?
How much did their age class and sex influence that variation?
How did their use of the landscape affect their chances of surviving the hunting season?
The 2nd question gets an answer that does contradict something I remember saying earlier, and
@BackSpasm called me on it. It shows at least some big bucks behaving differently (remember, some individuals are apparently spazzy) from younger ones. It doesn't PROVE that this is due to learning (the main thing I have an issue with people assuming) it just ASSUMES it.
So I'll retreat slightly on my original position.
In my opinion, the differences in deer behavior just aren't worth obsessing over when you look at all the other variables. They all feed, breed, and hide. Habitat and hunting regulations have HUGE impacts on herd structure and hunter success capacity. More, I believe, than anything else by a wide margin. Individual deer do random things that make translating broad theories to the real world difficult. Many if not most hunters who want to shoot "trophy" bucks are trying to squeeze blood from a turnip (look at the map and spreadsheets), and articles on buck behavior and "advanced strategies" are for the most part of questionable value. An emphasis on basics (quality habitat; low pressure; predicting deer travel based on feed, breed, hide) isn't sexy but would improve most people's hunting.
Anywho. I just dropped $450 on an out-of-state license to put money where my mouth is. I'm definitely not trying to sell folks a line. I think one third of the forum thinks I'm a cocky little dipshine who needs humbling, one third thinks I'm preaching to the choir or fighting a strawman, and maybe one third is nodding along and will shave some years off their learning curve.