Waterholes for Wildlife – Part One

Food – cover, food – cover, food – cover. Those are the  two main terms discussed when it comes to improving the drawing power and holding capacity of your lands for White-tailed Deer.  Water has a tendency to bring up the rear.  I must admit, I too undervalued the importance of water as it relates to deer and other wild things for far too long.  That was until I scooped out a few buckets of dirt in and old logging cut-out making a catch-basin for runoff water.  What happened next would inspire me to install waterholes at varying intervals on every single property I am fortunate to hunt.

The benefits of waterholes are many, ranging from the obvious as it relates to life and living, and the not-so-obvious advantages like gauging populations and further adding to our satisfaction as land managers with the trail camera pictures and videos that originate in and around them.  I would even argue that strategically placed waterholes for wildlife actually increase the realty value of a specific property by adding to its unique diversity and improving forest aesthetics.  

Life & Living

If I were a deer I’d be easy to pattern – you could find me living just about as close I could possibly live to the most plentiful waterhole in town.  I drink a ton of water – just ask my wife.  She’s probably at her wits end with having to fix every single glass I inhale while I’m recovering from hip surgery.   Deer are a bit different.  Unlike me, they get a lot of their water from the various plants they consume.  As such, during wetter periods of the year, waterholes might not get the daily visitors they once did during the drier months. But, think of them as an insurance policy that will keep deer and other wildlife on your place when all other wells have run dry.  Even if you have perennial streams that also serve as a permanent source of water for all things wild, a waterhole about the size of a backyard swimming pool will rarely dry up here in Central, NC if installed in a place where a good bit of runoff water can accumulate.  Unlike the stream that can have hundreds of little water pockets along its run during dry weather when its ebb is more than its flow, a strategically placed waterhole provides a centralized location for deer to congregate, making them easier for us to pattern.   

Most of the activity we see in and around these man-made sources of H2O is late spring through early fall, the same time-period where the use of mineral stations by deer are at their peak.  This correlation should come as no surprise – there’s a lot going on in the white-tailed deer world during this time. Does are fawning and bucks are growing that head gear that everyone loves to see.  Because of this, they need minerals and water some-kinda-bad, which is why we choose to position our mineral stations, mineral sites, or salt licks (whatever you wanna call them) very close or directly adjacent a water source.  Most mineral supplements on the market have a higher concentration of NaCl or Salt than any other specific nutrient whitetails need.  Because I like to keep things simple, what happens when you eat something fairly salty?  If you’re like me, you get pretty thirsty.  I’d be willing to bet that deer experience the same sensation, which might help to explain why mineral stations nearer to water are frequented more? – Whether an accurate assessment or not, it’s certainly part of my own justification for placing minerals closer to water! 

The Census Man

That’s me.  Well, here lately, it’s Chance.  I  used to be the man responsible for running upwards of 50 trail cameras at any given time.  That responsibility has shifted as of late, but the reasonings behind our use of trail cameras year-round remains the same – They help us to gauge populations of White-tailed Deer, Wild Turkey, & other Wildlife.  And, every once in a while, you capture something really cool, something that others might not have the opportunity to see, something that might help folks understand why we do what we do or maybe generate a little business here and there.  

 A camera placed in some random location on a given parcel of land won’t help with gauging wildlife populations very much.  You’ll need multiple cameras in most cases and a reason that’ll bring deer, turkey, and other wild things in front of them frequently enough over a set period of time to do an accurate survey.  In most cases, land managers use corn or some other supplemental feed for this purpose – we’re no different!  However, it’s not the only means to an and.  Waterholes can also provide noteworthy data on a given population, especially when a camera is set to take videos instead of pictures – It’s much easier to see any health issues an animal may be facing, like a broken or deformed leg for instance.     

Creating a waterhole on your property is surefire way to help hold animals year-round.  One of the most rewarding aspects of managing wild lands is knowing that you are having a positive impact on the lives of the wild things that roam those lands – Waterholes can help with that!  Find more videos of wildlife using waterholes here:  #waterholesforwildife! – You can even subscribe to our channel, it won’t hurt our feelings! If you do one thing on your property this year, create a waterhole or ten or let us create them for you!  You won’t be disappointed!  Good Luck & Good Hunting!