by Dr. Daniel Crawford sought to find out which apex predator struck the most fear in whitetail deer. They did this playing the calls of predators such as wolves, coyotes, and others to see which the deer would react to the quickest. As a control, he also played the calls of various local birds to see if the deer had any reaction to those sounds. He used trail cams to capture the reaction of the deer.
Dr. Daniel Crawford is affiliated with the Jones Center of Ichauway, Georgia and the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Center at Texas A&M University – Kingsville. He conducted his study at the Jones Center, a 29,000 acre reserve, located in southwest Georgia and it formed the basis of his Ph.D. dissertation.
The video below with Lindsay Thomas of the National Deer Association shows many clips that Dr. Crawford and his team recorded. You might be surprised at which apex predator caused the strongest flight response in whitetail deer.
If you are interested in reading more about the research on this super-predator interaction with whitetail deer, Dr. Crawford published an article in the journal Oecologia where he goes into much more detail.