How To Master Travel Corridors: Connecting The Dots

February 21, 2026
By Dr. James C. Kroll

In the October subject of North American Whitetail, I mentioned every of the eight kinds of Whitetail Habitat: forage producing, mast producing, cowl, edge, staging, sanctuary, water and journey hall. Each of those have to be conveniently distributed throughout the primary house vary of a whitetail to maximise manufacturing of deer in your property.

The journey hall is the habitat ingredient that connects these vital parts within the “deer landscape.” By utilizing correctly designed and positioned journey corridors, I’ve been in a position to decide the place deer journey; however I’ve by no means been in a position to get them to journey once I need them to! That stays the enjoyable a part of deer administration and searching.

In this installment, I’ll talk about what precisely is a journey hall, what elements affect their use, and the way to create them in your deer searching property.

WHAT IS A TRAVEL CORRIDOR?

In my early days of analysis, the paths deer traveled had been generally known as “deer runs” by many hunters. We didn’t suppose this time period was descriptive sufficient, so approach again in my first articles in NAW journal, I started utilizing the time period journey hall. A “corridor” has been outlined by the Oxford Dictionary as “a belt of land linking two different areas or following a highway or river. Example: The valley supplies the principal wildlife 
hall between the uplands and the central city space.”

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So, journey hall defines extra than simply the place a deer runs, it’s the pathways your deer use to enter, cross and depart your land.

The white-tailed deer is a drainage animal, and the first drainages are the highways that deer use to maneuver throughout the panorama. It can 
be analogized to the freeway methods on the human panorama. Large river drainages transition into small rivers, creeks after which minor ephemeral drainages. Doe clans are inclined to affiliate with smaller drainages, whereas bucks use minor and main drainages to maneuver from one doe clan to a different. A doe clan is made up of associated people, grandmothers, moms, aunts and cousins. They seldom permit an unrelated doe to enter the clan. 

Bucks transfer from one drainage system to a different by way of topographic options known as saddles. Leading outward from drainages are topographic and vegetative options; deer use these to both expedite or conceal their actions to and from bedding and feeding areas. We have discovered that deer have a tendency to make use of the mid-slope relatively than ridges or creek bottoms, typically strolling alongside the topographic line. We have concluded that they do that to save lots of power.

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On larger floor, deer are inclined to reap the benefits of adjustments in topography that disguise motion. Since deer are solely about 4 ft on the shoulder, that’s the solely change in topography wanted to hide actions. In addition, deer comply with vegetative edges, to allow them to disappear shortly if hazard approaches. 

We have performed many research on deer actions utilizing radio-telemetry, and we typically discover they typically use a small portion of a property for journey. In truth, there are locations the place the land could also be devoid of deer exercise.

FINDING TRAVEL CORRIDORS

Long in the past, we found a comparatively simple strategy to discover current journey corridors; one that doesn’t require scientific radio-telemetry research! Bucks are greater than “happy” to inform you the place they journey, by developing rubs as they transfer from one place to a different. The kind of rub tells you an ideal deal about what bucks are doing in that a part of the property.

For instance, a signpost rub is one that’s made in an open understory space the place there are bushes with diameters of 4 to 10 inches. They happen in staging areas adjoining to the place does come to feed, principally down prevailing wind from the meals supply. This could also be a stand of productive oaks, a meals plot, agricultural crop or deer feeder.

Signposts are extremely seen and normally constructed on tree species with extremely seen under-bark, making them visible, in addition to scent-marked buildings.

The two remaining kinds of rubs are “one-way” and “two-way” rubs. Bucks have journey corridors which are used to go in just one route, whereas others are used for two-way journey. If the rubs are persistently on just one facet of the bushes, that the majority definitely is a one-way journey hall. Conversely, these rubbed on two reverse sides are two-way paths.

In the early days of our analysis, we used maps on which we recorded the overall places of those rubs; nevertheless, when GPS got here on the scene, we logged the precise places of them. In these days it took costly, extremely technical gadgets to do that; nevertheless, at this time anybody with a cellular phone can do the identical factor! There are mapping functions now for cell telephones that will let you “geotag” any construction or location. You can then show these collectively on an aerial or satellite tv for pc picture of the property.

NEXT STEPS

At this level, you may be saying, “So, what do we do with this information?”

The subsequent step in growing a habitat administration plan to your property is to guage how your deer are utilizing your property, then decide how most of the eight habitat varieties are in your land? Most whitetails will spend their total life inside a sq. mile (640 acres) that features your property. The period of time they spend in your property might be decided by the provision and distribution of the habitats.

The objectives in deer habitat administration are first to determine how deer transfer over and round your property, and what kinds of habitat do you may have in your property. Once you conduct this evaluation, the following step is to ask your self, “What is affecting the movements of my deer?” Then, it’s best to develop a plan to develop current journey corridors or create new ones that join your deer with vital habitats. Not each property goes to have an intensive community of journey corridors, resulting from inherent limitations imposed by topography and current vegetation. So, what do you do?

IMPROVING AND CREATING TRAVEL CORRIDORS

A property typically consists of modifications imposed by earlier house owners, resembling agriculture, livestock and timber. Obviously, it’s not possible to vary the topography of your land, however there are methods to control vegetation to supply connections between your habitats in methods sooner than you’d suppose. Let’s begin with a earlier historical past of agriculture. Here is an efficient instance from our work on the Turtle Lake Club in Michigan.

They had a really massive subject that was impeding motion of their deer from one wooded space to a different. Deer both needed to go across the 
massive opening or transfer throughout at evening. Manager Wayne Sitton determined to make use of a two-stage strategy, beginning by planting a 25-feet-wide strip of corn connecting the forests on either side. To our shock, the deer used the mature corn strip to get throughout the sector. He continued the corn planting for just a few years, whereas quick rising conifers, planted adjoining to them, grew. Today, the conifer strip is tall and dense, offering a purposeful journey hall throughout the sector. 

Livestock administration typically includes clearing and sustaining grasslands, and controlling the actions of livestock utilizing fences. Traditionally, ranchers have saved these fences clear so that they might be simply maintained. Some of those fences typically have been deserted and have begun to develop up in brush and younger bushes. Such fences can be utilized to increase journey corridors from the higher finish of a drainage to a distant vital habitat. Birds are more than pleased to assist enhance the utility of an deserted fence, by depositing seeds from the fruits they eat elsewhere on the property. On the Dos Gringos Ranch close to Alice, Texas, we developed a community of journey corridors just by stopping the follow of mowing proper as much as the fence. 

In Kansas, properties typically have a historical past of farming and ranching, with little in the way in which of canopy varieties. Large fields typically have deserted fence rows that might afford a path for deer to journey throughout a big subject. We typically make plantings of chickasaw plum, sumac, and Switchgrass alongside previous fence strains to shortly enhance use. Along the way in which, we additionally plant drought-hardy conifers and deciduous bushes to create bedding and staging areas. Since water typically is a limiting issue, we assemble water stations at intersections of fences, surrounded by the quilt crops. 

Here on the Research Institute, we had a savannah habitat that was nice for fawning cowl, however being positioned on high of a ridge between two drainages, deer seldom crossed it, besides at evening. There was a wonderful buck bedding space on one facet bucks used intensively. There is not any saddle in that space, so the bucks traveled across the savannah. In order to keep up the savannah, we have now to conduct a prescribed burn on an annual foundation, killing again woody vegetation. 

Five years in the past, we determined to assemble two hearth lanes 50 ft aside that might shield a strip throughout the ridge from the burn. We took benefit of the heavy seed drop annually from the pines. Again, to hurry issues up, we planted a hybrid sudangrass within the strip as a short lived cowl. We had been happy to look at that deer started utilizing the strip of grass and younger pines to cross the ridge the second yr, and proceed to take action to today. Bucks are even bedding within the 6- to 8-feet-tall pines alongside the connecting path between the 2 drainages. This new journey hall connects with 
two wooded journey corridors, one alongside a drainage and the opposite between a meals plot and bedding cowl.

For these of you who handle timberland and whitetails, you may plan forward of a timber harvest to go away a panorama extra favorable to your deer. In forestry, there’s a precept known as “Streamside Management Zones (SMZs),” that protects watersheds from erosion. In most states, laws prescribe a sure width of streamside for defense. These normally are far narrower than actually wanted to diversify your habitats and supply journey corridors to your deer. We advocate utilizing the topography of the land, relatively than a set width, to outline you SMZs, and take into account leaving connecting strips between drainages. It prices a little bit in timber revenue, however the long-term worth is price it, for my part. You can then “have your cake and eat it too,” while you add in growth of connections between vital habitats and meals plots. 

Remember, most white-tailed deer reside in areas the place the vital habitats are usually not optimally distributed on the panorama. Our analysis has proven they “want” to reside throughout many of the yr on as little as 80 acres. Although you can not prohibit actions of dollars throughout the rut, you can also make your property THE place does need to be, along with offering sanctuary cowl for bucks in your space. 

If you make it simpler for them to maneuver round your property, and supply sanctuary cowl, you’d be amazed how efficient a small property habitat administration program will be. My pals, Larry and Tyler Porter of Ken-Tenn Hunting, have used habitat administration for years to supply trophy bucks on comparatively small acreages. They accomplish that by following the methods I’ve outlined right here. So, get on the market and get to work, making your property THE place deer need to be.