Guest columnist Travis Gates, a lifelong lover of nature, is marketing specialist for the Lake Erie Nature & Science Center.

The temperatures drop and the leaves change. Maybe you’re suddenly more inclined to indulge in some seasonal pumpkin-flavored fare.

But these aren’t the only signs of fall. We also start to see more deer this time of year.

No matter what the season, the white-tailed deer ( Odocoileus virginianus ) is perhaps Ohio’s most well-known mammal.

But we see more of them in late fall, as that’s the peak of their mating season -- also known as their “rut.”

This causes them to become more active and change locations more frequently.

During rut, bucks (male deer) aggressively search for does (female deer), and their behavior shifts from the “October lull,” when bucks wal

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