[Kingcreek]

What are your opinions regarding animal ESP or "hyper-awareness"?
"Pondoro" Taylor wrote of animals awareness of the hunter and once apparently demonstrated a mental telepathy trick with wood dove in Africa.
I have observed many whitetails act like they have a "6th sense" of my presence at times even when upwind and completely concealed from me. I believe it was our modern-day Chuck Adams that said he avoids sustained, focussed observation of game animals and instead keeps them in his periferal field of vision until they are within bow range.
I have experimented with this phenomena while hunting and while out with my retriever but my results are inconclusive. I'm inclined to think there might be some truth to it but I welcome any comments.
just curious....

[Preacherman]

It's an interesting subject. It's hard to experiment with animals in the wild, but a British experiment showed that some domestic dogs, at least, are so mentally attuned to their owners that they can somehow detect when their owner makes the decision to return home. One case that I saw on TV showed a dog-owner and an observer leave home to go shopping, with no clear idea of when they would come back. The dog was filmed, lying in the living-room, with no sign of activity. At a specific time, the dog looked up, moved to the front door, and laid down there. It emerged that that was the time at which the dog's owner decided to leave the shops and return home. This was repeated a few times, with exact correlation between the "home" decision and the dog's reaction. Interesting stuff...

[Jeff]

I think in many well known instances, such as epileptic attacks in owners, the dog actually smells the change in chemical balance in the individual.

Many dogs also seem to sense the coming of an earthquake, or storm. Perhaps they are more finely attuned to the geological or barometric changes inherent in these phenomena, either in some increased state of one of the five senses, or an increased state in a quasi sixth-sense, such as balance, or proprioception.

[Keith]

Biologists have recorded some strange behavior with Alaskan and Canadian wolves on the tundra. Wolves in this sort of country tend to fan out alone or in pairs, over miles of territory. There are several well documented cases where biologists filming several different animals of a pack have noted that they'll (simultaneously) stop their activity and go directly to a place (sometimes miles away) where one wolf has found a large prey animal.

There's no other way to explain this, other than ESP. The wolf finding the prey does not howl or give any audible cue, merely sits and waits for the pack to gather around him/her. When they've gathered, they then move in on the prey animal.

Another interesting example is given of a group of biologists in a hilltop blind with multiple cameras. Each camera is focused on a different member of a pack, most of them at extreme range from the cameras. One wolf just happens to wander close to the blind and detects some faint noise or human odor, then freezes and focuses on the blind. When the film is examined later it is noted that every single member of the pack (some of them as much as mile a way) froze and looked at the hilltop only a fraction of a second after the first wolf noted danger. The entire pack then simultaneously left the area, all heading in the same direction. And again with no howling, barking or anything else that you'd think would be necessary to coordinate such a move.

Keith

[4v50 Gary]

I believe animals have it. When I'm just fiddle-faddling fart'n about, they seem to be all over the place. When I'm out to kill, nary a thing but trees, bushes and lizards may be seen. :(

[JShirley]

I try to avoid prolonged direct staring at anything I'm sneaking up on. I know people can certainly often sense it, and wild animals are likely more attuned...

John

[Kingcreek]

interesting replies...Thanks
I also avoid watching game intently while I am hunting. I have observed whitetail across a field or at a distance, casually grazing then go to full alert while I've watched them with binos, etc. I sometimes think the closer they are, the more they sense my presence, even when wind or trail scent are not factors. While in the tree stand I sometimes experiment with the smaller animals like trying to "turn-off" crows calling or alert a coon, etc. When a deer is coming in I usually study my boots (and count to slow my breathing and pulse) and take short glances in the direction of the intended prey. Most of my deer hunting is with bow.
Pondoro Taylor demonstrated the stopping of an emerald wood dove in mid call in Africa using his mental signal. This is detailed in the book "A man called Lion" by Capstick.
Like I said, I'm tempted to believe there is an extra-sensory element involved with wild animals.

[Edward429451]

A few years back I was elk hunting and seen movement on a far ridge so I swung up the /06 to get a better look through the scope. Coyote, head down, medium trot. He didnt seem to be hunting or running spooked or anything like that. I just continued to glass him as he trotted along, I was paying real close attention to him and followed him through the scope for probably 1/2 mile. I wasn't about to shoot him for fear of spooking the real game. I had heard how good their eyesight is so thought I'd see just how good and raised one hand about 1/2 way up, to which he jerked his head my way and did an about face and broke into a full run. Either he didn't have ESP and did have good eyesight, or else he had good enough ESP to realize that I wasn't going to shoot him and my movement made him decide to not take any chances...Dunno.

[Grayrock]

I have done informal experiments with mourning doves in this area. It seems when I am out hunting that the doves always dodge just as I pull the trigger. One time I was driving along going to work and spied a dove crossing in the sky ahead of me. It was cruising along at a leisurely 35-45 mph in a straight line. I put my index finger out, upwardly extended my thumb and proceeded to point my finger-gun at said dove. The instant I THOUGHT the word "boom", that dove banked 90 degrees left, poured on the afterburners and was gone in a flash. I have repeated this experiment several times with similar results. Maybe I need to trade in my camo for a lead-lined tinfoil cap!

[Art Eatman]

Yeah, I'll go along with the general idea of some sort of hyper-sensitivity. I don't think it's all critters, all the time, though.

I've had more than one deer or coyote just watch me as I unslung a rifle, took aim and fired. Usually, those were out beyond a hundred yards or so...Quien sabe? Maybe there's a distance-factor?

Art

[Newt]

I'd have to agree. I don't know about the ESP thing but then again how else do you explain those stories above. Hyperawareness isn't the same as ESP though. Next time you watch a hunting video or a show on TV, try to notice how many times a deer will look directly at the hunter/camera. I've experienced this myself as well. They just know something isn't exactly the same as it was before. Call it what you want, extra-sensitive senses or hyperawareness, whatever you call it, I truly believe that it exists in the game we hunt.

Newt

[TallPine]

Might be something to it ...

Last fall, a buck walked up to within 15 yards of me without even seeing me.

When he suddenly realized that I was there, he dropped dead on the spot.

:D

[standingbear]

maybe something to the fact that animals learn your habits just as you would learn theirs to stalk them.their hearing,smell and visual sensitivity are much more accurate than ours.the ones that dont learn quickly enough simply are run over by a car or shot.the psychic phenomena theory would make an interesting test.now i know why all those anglers say"you gotta hold yer mouth right" when theyre bringing in the big catfish.would also explain why i see more groundhogs driving home from the range than when i get there.

[gun-fucious]

Most prey animals don't see in color

Imagine what they must be missing...

Now consider that they smell in color
and we barely manage to smell in Black and White

They hear in color too

[kentucky bucky]

No, they don't have ESP they just know my hunting schedule.:scrutiny:

[444]

This is a very interesting subject. I have read about it on and off for years and I think there is definitely something to it. I also believe that some animals are more attuned or possibly more aware than others. Sort of like humans being in condition white even though they are capable of being more aware.
Not that this has anything to do with hunting, but it does illustrate this "hyperawareness". I read a story about a guy in California who owned several Rottweilers. He wanted to take them for a walk in the mountains which was something they usually loved to do. One day they didn't want to go. He pressed the issue, but they wouldn't go far from the house. He finally gave up and went back in the house. Moments later he collpased with a cardiac dysrthymia. The dogs knew it before he did; and possibly knew it before it happened.
I read another story that was supposed to show how sensitive a dog's sense of smell was. In Germany, a person was kidnapped. The police found the car used in the kidnapping and placed a piece of cloth on the front seat. After leaving the cloth there for awhile they placed the cloth in a sealed glass jar. Several years after the fact they narrowed down the suspects. They removed the piece of cloth from the jar and had a dog smell it. He then walked right over to the guy that did it. With this thread in mind, maybe the dog knew or sensed who did it and smell had nothing to do with it ?
Then there are the dogs used to scent bodies under water. Are they actually smelling the body through many feet of water, or is something else at work ? Some other sense ?

[MeekandMild]

Don't know about ESP but I think that deer can hear the click of a rifle safety at several hundred yards. Interesting though, when you're hunting bucks you see only does; when you are hunting does you see only bucks.

[HBK]

I had a big argument about that with my mother-in-law. She sincerely believes that animals "just know" things. At the time, her cat was walking by. I kicked him and asked, "If he has ESP, why didn't he anticipate my foot making contact with his ????" She had no answer.

[Art Eatman]

One factor in SOME instances is "Pattern Recognition". That is, critters are pretty good at figuring out whether anything in the scenery is different from the last time they saw it. The wildlife-biology boffins have claimed that the wild turkey is the best at this.

Deer and coyotes, I know, are pretty good at determining that some "rock" or "stump" wasn't there, yesterday. :)

Whatever makes the scenery different is by definition BAD and therefore it's time to practice being elsewhere...

:), Art

[Edward429451]

I'll go along with hyper sensitivity at the least. I twisted my ankle just a little last week. Not really limping, just not putting all my weight on it. I'm going down the basement stairs, (My dog usually tears but down the stairs and passes me up to beat me to the bottom), not this time. He stood at the top while I walked down. I said C'mon boy' and he just stood there. As soon as I got to the bottom, here he came!. That dog sensed my injury and let me go first out of politeness. That blew my mind. Every tome I feed him or give him a snack, he always comes to me when he's done and licks my hand as if to say thank you. I think my dog is smarter than some humans.:D

[DadOfThree]

I don't know about ESP but I do know it's a lot easier to get close to prey animals if you don't look directly at them. I used to hunt rabbits with a .22 revolver. The trick was to walk slowly so that you didn't spook them too soon. Then when you spotted one, you had to angle towards it while keeping it in your peripheral vision. Most of the time I could get within 10 ft or so. Or at least close enough for a head shot. I don't have an explanation for the cited examples but if most animals had ESP, hunting success ratios would be very low.

[Keith]

I was going to avoid telling this because it just sounds... weird. Anyway, I once had a wonderful wolf by the name of George - a female. Raised her from a cub in the house so she completely bonded with people as a member of our family "pack". Smartest "dog" I ever owned and best friend I ever had.

Anyway, frequently I would be sitting in my chair reading a book and she'd be dozing in her spot on the carpet across the room. If I raised my eyes from the book to look at her, her ears would pop up and she'd open her eyes and look back. I experimented with this over and over until I was convinced that this was an actual phenomena, not just her hearing some sound like closing the book or whatever - she would do it even when I just moved my eyes and nothing else.
I demonstrated this to my wife on a number of occasions and she tried it as well, without any success. The wolf just seemed to be "tuned" to me. I left home for a year to a remote site out in the Aleutians and when I came home she was still my pal, but that "magic" was gone and she no longer would wake up when I looked at her. Something had changed.

I can't help but conclude that some sixth sense was at work here. I don't think she was hearing the sound of my eyeballs swiveling in their sockets! And in any case she didn't wake up and look at me when I looked at other places in the room. She always knew I looked at her, and responded by looking back.

Keith

[sm]

I also believe animals have some sort of hyper-sensitivity. Some have a particular sense or senses heightened we humans don't.

One Cocker-Spaniel I had was really was gifted. Granted his papers and bloodline would span into the next room. He and I connected better than he did with the mom and kid. (makes me sound screwy I know). I trusted his instincts about things. I once noticed him acting wierd as we went past our neighbor's house, he wouldn't continue our walk, I had to go up to the door. The neighbor had fallen and gashed her head! We got her assistance, and the little fella<smug 'cocky'look> "see I told you something was wrong".

Another time he kept staring at the photos of wife's parents, that "look" again. Wife called her parents, sure enough her dad was bad sick, in fact had been for hours (about the time the little fella started staring). We took her dad to the hospital-pneumonia. Uncanny I know.

He could walk up quail, find deer in woods, even seemed to know which side of the pond the fish were on. He sensed strangers. Mom ,he and I went for a walk. came back and kept trying to get mom to look at her purse. The kid had stolen a ten while we were gone.

Hunting--I still think critters have calendars with dates and shooting times. :p

[HBK]

I stand corrected. IS that dog for sale, re?

[Dr.Rob]

It's not just animals, you can do it too.

Like gun-fucious said, animals hear and smell in color. Animals are also in condition yellow all the time, we have evloved out of that need.

It's amazing, on a slightlyovercast day, just how far and clear everything seems to the eye, and how when it snows just right there is NO sound. And have you not, after a few days roughing it, and "tuning in' found that you can ghost through the woods, or sit still enough for a squirrel to mistake your hat for a stump. It takes practice, and patience.

And I'm sure you too have had the feeling that someone is starting at you, only to turn and find you are right.

Humans react to NON visual cues, but sometimes we fail to recognise them.

All in all that may or may not add up to ESP.

Many people thought Elephants were psychic until someone recorded long wave sounds they make to each other over vast distances.

Maybe wolves just haven't been tested the right way. Then again maybe there is such a thing as ESP or shared conciousness.

[sm]

Dr.Rob makes a good point (as always).
On those overcast days and the barometric pressure is 'just right' , easy for me to see the 'shot pattern" en-route to target. I guess each animal has that yellow alert, survival sense as we train ourselves. Animals have had to--lest they be easy prey. Some have more specialized senses.

Again- we humans can learn by observing.

[sm]

HBK,
I no longer have the dog, the wife or the kid. I'm not allowed pets where I moved to, and still reside. I was offered that Cocker sometime later, and I should have moved in order to have him. He became very sick upon my departure. I was called and asked to see him at the vet. He perked up and recovered quickly.

This dog would keep me company while reloading. I laid a box of 28 ga on 'his chair' in the reloading room. He made it very clear that was HIS box of 28 ga loads. I clear taped it secure. He never chewed, or tried to open, he just snuggled with them--and one best not remove from his chair! He has loose hulls in 28 ga, again he never chewed, just batted them about and chased them. I made him a dog tag with a 28 ga case head soft-soldered to a disc.

Last I heard, he wouldn't wear the new collar until that disc was on that new collar. He still has in his possession the box of 28 ga shells. His toy box still has old duck calls, and old fingerless glove of mine, a slew of 28 ga hulls, a AA plastic coffee mug, a chew toy that resembles a 1911,numerous "AA 100 straight patches", several empty primer trays, quite a few fishing toys as well, has his own set of lures-with out hooks and a clear tackle box.

He enjoyed anything firearm/fishing related, my truck, being in the field, watching me shoot, and quite a fishing buddy.

He showed his butt when my picture was removed from the mantle. For a bit while we ended our marriage and we had to talk--the dog bugged her until I spoke to him. For a few years I sent B-day and 25th of Dec. toys, including gift certificates to our local pet store and fast food joint. He preferred Sonic hamburgers.

Yeah, I shoulda kept that dog. <sniff, sniff>

[Preacherman]

For those moaning that animals know about hunting season, let me add my own experience.

From 1997 to 2002, I was pastor of a church in a northern Louisiana town. The church was fairly isolated (no other buildings visible), with a small patch of woods behind it, and a couple of acres of grass. Regular as clockwork, every October, on the opening day of squirrel season, my trees would be FULL of squirrels, watching the frustrated hunters driving past and giving them a big :neener: . (The hunters were frustrated because I didn't allow hunting on church property, given the bullet holes to be found here and there in the buildings! :D )

Also, a few weeks later, every year, a group of five or six deer would move into the woods behind my rectory, a day or two before deer season opened. They'd stay there right through deer season, and be gone a day or two after it closed. I'd often find them grazing right outside my back door in the early morning, and they'd look up at me in the doorway, quite unafraid, and drift slowly back into the woods. They knew they were safe on the church property, no question.

I'd sometimes hunt nuisance crows on the church grounds, using a shotgun, and even while this was going on, the squirrels and deer never moved away. They seemed to know that they weren't the targets.

Does anyone have any explanation except to assume that the squirrels and deer knew when hunting season was coming along? I can't think of any other reason for their behavior... :confused:

[sm]

Preacher,
I'm in the city, in a high traffic area. Between my complex and the residential area there is ravine and woods. I have an increase in doves when dove season starts. I had 3 deer last deer season-one a real big buck, I couldn't count all the rack- but did count 7 at least! Squirrels, rabbits,chipmunks...you name it, I"ve seen it out my back deck. A stone's throw from here a bear was tranquilized.

I still think some of those rural mail boxes alongside dirt roads really belong to critters. The Game and Fish just send calendars and shooting times to these just like humans. Mr. Buck, Bushy, R.A Bit, and M. Dove.

[Rebeldon]

I don't think there is any such thing as ESP, except perhaps magnetic senses. Many types of animals are able to sense the Earth's magnetic field and navigate themselves with it. That's how birds fly to the same spot in South America for the winter, or how whales know where they are going. As far as hunting goes, I just think that animals such as whitetail, have such keen sense of smell and hearing that they can smell and hear things at a level that we can't even relate. Look at dogs when you walk them. They sniff around like they're turning the pages of a newspaper. Those smells are like the Wall Street Journal to them. They can smell that another dog has been there and peed, and even tell how healthy that other dog is, what his mood was, how good he's eating, and whether he is sexually active. Animals sense danger by smell. You think it's ESP, but even at a great distance, they might smell you. If not you, the smell of the other animals in the area. When animals see or smell danger, they change chemically, and that change effects their odor. And the odors the other animals give off tell the whitetail deer about the danger of a nearby predator (you) in the area.

That's my $0.02.

[Glamdring]

Well I don't think they have ESP. I think too many hunters just are not as good at stalking as they would like to be.

Many animals are far more used to being hunted than human hunters are used to hunting (365 days a year vs ??)

We (humans) tend to use our eyes for everything. But you can train yourself to use other senses.

Example, if you pay attention you can hear the difference between being close to a wall or door and being in the middle of a room.

You can also smell more things than you might realize. Ever read about the good snipers from vietnam (just one example)? You can track someone by scent (even if they don't have artifical scent, often it isn't any smell you can name just something different from "regular air" but only works for me at short range and time and mainly indoors (little air current).