Arkansas's two rut bands
AGFC's figure comes from crown-rump fetal aging of does collected during CWD surveillance, February–March 2002–2015 (n = 1,512), published as a static raster figure inside a 52-page management plan PDF — not a standalone table.
| Region | Peak breeding | Peak movement (hunt this) | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Western Arkansas | Oct 28 – Nov 21 | Oct 14 – Nov 14 | C |
| Eastern Arkansas / Mississippi River counties | Nov 22 – Dec 14 | Nov 8 – Dec 7 | C |
AGFC states no cause for the east-west gradient anywhere in the plan or its release material — we don't attribute one to them. There's also an unresolved discrepancy worth flagging: Wilson & Sealander (1971) put the Delta at Dec 9 and the West Gulf Coastal Plain at Dec 5 — roughly three weeks later than this modern map for the same country. Nobody has published an explanation for the shift.
Methodology and confidence
Confidence C. The underlying fetal-aging method and sample size (n = 1,512) are real and stated, but the east/west band boundaries here are read off a static figure inside a PDF, not published as a standalone table — and Arkansas has no county-level lookup published at all, unlike Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
FAQ
When is the rut in Arkansas?
Western Arkansas peaks Oct 28 – Nov 21; eastern Arkansas, along the Mississippi River, peaks noticeably later at Nov 22 – Dec 14. AGFC does not publish a county-level breakdown, only this east/west split.
Why does eastern Arkansas breed later than western Arkansas?
AGFC states no cause for the gradient in its own management plan. We don't attribute one to them — an older study (Wilson & Sealander 1971) put the same regions roughly three weeks later than the modern figures, and that shift has never been explained in print either.