Does Human Pee Scare Deer? What Its Impact on Deer Behavior

All of us have experienced that feeling of pressure in our bladder while out on the field. It is considered entirely unacceptable to pee on a hunt when you are serious about hunting. It’s no secret that deer are frightened by human urine, but Does Human Pee Scare Deer?

Deer are sometimes scared by human smell, but not always. Through the use of trail cameras, we investigated whether deer can smell human urine and if they are repellent to it. The buck ignored it, much to our surprise. Others ran away immediately when they were scared. The population of an area and the area’s climate affect it, in my opinion.

Effects of Human Urine on Deer

Human urine scares deer, but there are conflicting opinions. Many people believe deer are attracted to the salt content of urine because of the ammonia smell, while others believe the strong ammonia smell acts as a deterrent.

However, it is important to note that neither claim has been scientifically proven. A fence or plants that repel deer can keep them away from your property more effectively if you’re trying to keep them away.

Scent

Game animals, including deer, can detect human urine without a doubt. Urinating at your hunting location may harm your chances of seeing the game, but the question should be more directed toward how serious the problem is.

The scent of your urine could easily induce this old buck to flee if he is particularly pressure-sensitive and hypersensitive to threats. It is generally known that urinating at hunting spots is not recommended due to this fact.

Hunters need to be aware of more than urine as a scent to avoid. As alarming as our urine is to deer, our everyday body odor is also.

Does Human Pee Attract Deer?

The hunters spend many hours hunting, so peeing in the bushes is not uncommon or ordinary for them. But deer can indeed detect the scent of human urine. What are their reactions to human urine?

Bucks are not attracted to human urine as it does not smell in a way like a deer urine. Bucks only attract to doe estrus as they are already looking for that. There is huge research on bucks’ excellent sense of scent. This is one reason they are difficult to hunt.

But in some research, it is shown that deer can attract human urine in the sense that they are curious to know about anything new they detect. Similarly, when they detect human urine, they become curious to know and get alerts as well.

To utilize this trick, hunters make a mock scrape for urinating and let deer come near this. When they come to detect the smell, they enhance the chances to shoot.

Thus, there are many structural comparisons between human and deer urine. For instance, both contain potassium, sodium chloride, urea, ammonia, and more.

Do Deer Smell Human Urine?

The hunters are out on a hunt for hours, so peeing in the woods isn’t unusual for them. In addition to being able to smell human urine, deer can also smell its scent. What is their response to it? Bucks are not attracted to human urine since it smells nothing like deer urine.

Bucks are probably the most challenging game animals due to their extremely keen sense of smell, which has been discussed in countless articles. Although the composition of human and deer urine differs immensely, they share many similarities. Among these compounds are urea, ammonia, potassium, sodium chloride, etc.

How Far Can Deer Smell Urine:

Moreover, the distance that human scent can travel depends on many factors, most notably wind. The distance a human scent travels is quite difficult to determine. Deer, however, can smell human scents 14.5 miles away if they have a good sense of smell. When you go hunting you should also know how to get deer to come out during the day.

Can Deer Tell the Difference of a Different Urine?

According to the general theory, a deer can detect urine that did not come from another deer. Unless a human leaves it, Deer might not recognize human urine. Another clue that urine has something to do with humans may be the presence of other familiar human scents around the urine.

An omnivore, or an omnivore that is partial to meat, might leave urine that deer might pick up on rather than a fellow herbivore. The urine would serve as a warning to deer that there may be predators around. Nevertheless, little evidence supports this claim.

An experiment on bucks tested urine from the doe, buck, human, and artificial sources. Researchers tested the urine from different sources, including buck, doe, human, and artificial ones.

We measured the attraction between bucks and scents. In the end, buck urine and artificial scents were not as attractive to bucks as human urine was, and doe urine only came close.

Yet human urine, in this case, had a neutral effect rather than being positive or negative. Compared to chemical smells or buck urine odors, it was less offensive. A buck obviously doesn’t pay too much attention to sniffing other buck’s urine, so there isn’t much benefit to this knowledge.

Controlling Human Scent

Today, hunters can eliminate their scent before venturing out with the help of a wide variety of products. Clothing, glassing equipment, and accessories (e.g. best rangefinder binoculars for hunting) with scent-eliminating properties are all included in this group.

Electronics

Electronic scent-killing devices are the newest invention in scent control. Due to their high price, this method is only used by professional hunters. This category contains a variety of products, including ozonic machines, zero trace ions units, scent crushers, etc.

Spray

Human scent can be eliminated with masking sprays, which are widely used. Scent sprays that control scents are widely available and extremely convenient to use. A scent masking technology and component are present in these sprays.

A scent of pine or earth is added to mask the personal scent. It is easy to go near a deer while wearing the masking spray without scaring it.

Clothing

New clothing designs designed to reduce our emissions of scent into the air are in the process of being developed. In some cases, you can even prevent your scent from escaping the garment entirely by simply wearing the clothing. Their claims are supposedly made possible by sewing a layer into the garment.

Human Scent and Deer Hunting

Using human urine as an attractant is controversial when it comes to deer hunting. Despite some hunters’ beliefs, urine can attract and bag games despite its strong scent. How true is it? It is difficult to answer definitively.

Human urine can deter some deer while attracting others. Hunting is ultimately a personal matter; every hunter must determine what works best in their particular circumstances.

Does Human Urine Spook Deer Away?

As much as possible, you should hide your scent when hunting. As a matter of fact, this is a very important aspect of the sport. However, relieving your bladder in nature is likely not to have much of an impact on nearby deer when nature calls.

You can ensure that no urine scent stays on the field by bringing along a pee bottle with your hunting gear. You may prefer this option if you are a purist. Dehydrate for the day and wait to urinate and drink until you can return to camp instead of buying bottles.

How Long Does Human Urine Odor Last?

You will be surprised to know that human urine odor can last for 5 to 14 days including different factors that I have described above. It is because the human urine smell fades away after some time. Thus, the salt in the urine has no smell when it is dry. But if there will be moisture or dampness, the smell can stay longer.

Does Human Pee Deter Deer?

It is uncertain whether human pee deters the deer or not. Due to this confusion, many hunters have normally carried a urine bottle with them while hunting.

In the past, hunters were required to use the pee bottle or leave their tree stand to release urine. Due to this, they have to leave the hunting spot and this can decrease the chances to hunt deer by wasting their time.

According to a recent study and testing, hunters urinate on the deer breaches and close to the tree stands. Deer passed through those areas but didn’t panic. This indicates human pee does not deter deer and their pee won’t cause the deer to flee to another area.

Thus, it is preferable to avoid using human pee to attract or deter deer and release urine away from the hunting area.

FAQs

In areas where they detect the scent of predators, deer will avoid them. Deer have an extremely acute sense of smell. Deers may choose to avoid an area if they detect the scent of human urine, indicating a potential threat.

Yes, urine odor attracts deer. In the fall, the urine of animals, such as does, is particularly concentrated during estrous periods. Scientists have told me that deer, among other mammals, tend to see mammal urine as socially interesting, but neither species nor gender can be determined from it.

The majority of whitetails will dismiss cologne if they smell it on a walking path but will become alert if they smell it on an open field. You can cause utter panic in the same deer by moving the same cologne scent a hundred yards off the trail.

Using a treestand or ground blind allows you to release fresh human odors, which send a warning to nearby prey. Peeing near hunting stands is discouraged for a reason.

According to the study, dog urine can deter deer. Also, it is believed that wolf or coyote urine is effective at scaring deer away from a location. But there is a restriction that it must be the pee of a predator.

Hunters can pee on deer scrapes or mock scrapes as it will make the deer curious to detect the smell and know about it. This way, hunters can get more chances to shoot deer while hunting. But it is more avoided to pee on the deer scrapes near hunting areas.

Human urine attracts heating, carbon dioxide, and human hormones. Sometimes it is effective to use human urine as a natural animal deterrent.

You will be shocked to know that human urine can last for 5 to 14 days in the woods. But it is based on several factors such as wind direction, humidity, quantity, and strength of the urine.

My Thoughts

You can bag a trophy buck by deer hunting properly, which is a fun-filled, thrilling adventure. The use of deer urine in hunting has been around for decades. Habitats and ecosystems around the land are always associated with human pee.

Human scent can sometimes spook deer. The smell of humans, however, does not seem to bother most deer, and they pass along ignoring it.

Trail cameras monitored our private hunting lands in 2022 for evidence of deer activity with human pee.

There is no end to what hunters can do with it. It is important to learn from seasoned hunters how to use hunting techniques correctly to hunt successfully.

About Author

Hi, I’m David. a professional hunter. I’m hunting since my childhood I used to go with my dad in the States of Montana. We used to hunt mule deer and white-tailed deer. I made this blog to share my experience and help beginners with this experience. More about me here.