They seem to always be out during the day and during the night. When do they find time to sleep? And if its just a little bit, how do they remain so active on such little sleep?
In: 5
I don’t know the answer to the last part, but they sleep for about four hours in the afternoon. They try to camouflage themselves, and so they sleep lying down under some leaves or a bush or whatnot. It’s also hard to tell when they’re sleeping, because they open and close their eyes in their sleep to prevent predators from knowing they’re asleep.
Deer mostly just take shorter naps around noon, with most species observed to sleep between noon till 4 pm they also move their resting spots a lot
They basically find safe spots around the day and just nap. Because at night most of their predators are active
Even in captivity deer just tend to chill and nap around noon, so this behaviour seems to be pretty wired
Deer is what is known as crepuscular. These are animals who are mostly active at dusk and dawn. So they are not active the entire night and will find a spot to sleep a few hours in the middle of the night and also a few hours in the middle of the day.
Not science: based on 30+ years of observation of Texas white tail deer. They seem to adjust sleep habits to their local environments and make changes as necessary. They can go from diurnal to nocturnal to avoid other species (pig, turkey, human) that move in or through the area, if there has been dramatic weather changes (temp, biometric, storm) and seasonal events like rut and new fawns. They don’t have jobs or appointments, so they don’t really have hard schedules. As far as where, you’ll usually see some batted down high grass, frequently under a small tree.
Edit: me spells bad
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