Deer Walking -- an easy method to develop more "woods stealth"

Description

Moving through nature without being seen is a powerful skill. This simple technique isn't as effective as many others, but it is incredibly easy, and makes a big difference in how much you'll notice on your walks, plus makes you less noticeable.

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Tags: Kenton Whitman,ReWild University,Human Rewilding,personal rewilding,mindfulness,how to,bushcraft,survival,wilderness survival skills,how to survive in the woods

Video Transcription

whether we're going out in the woods to practice tactical skills to heighten our awareness or just to go out and enjoy the forest being able to move in a way that we are not seen as easily can make a big difference in a how often other people are gonna see us and be how much of our environment we're gonna be able to take in how close we're gonna get to animals wildlife it's a good skill to have know there are a lot of videos out there on for instance Fox walking and stalking methods well I'm not going to go over any of those people have done those justice many times today I'm just going to share a very simple skill that anybody no matter your skill level you can incorporate this and it will make a difference and how easily you're seen in the woods and in how much you see in the woods humans tend to be very very easy to spot in the woods because we have a way of just tromping through the woods at a singular speed and our eyes pick that up really really easily so even if we're looking way out on a hillside across the way when we see somebody that's just walking in that even pace instantly we no human of course our eyes notice the human profile shape very well so we noticed the uprightness but often even if that person is half obscured you're just seeing the top of them because of a ridge or something you're gonna be able to tell right away human just by that movement style there are some other animals in the woods that move like that the Wolves up here they tend to often just move at a steady pace for a long for a long way one direction but the animals that you're going to see commonly deer

for instance they do not move like that they have a very different movement method the deer will move through the woods when they stop they'll take in their surroundings and they'll move a little bit and they'll stop and take in their surroundings of course this changes if a deer is running for its life or has been startled or something but its default movement pattern tends not to just walk along steady for a long period of time and you know if you're a hunter you've been out in the woods a lot you've seen a deer you'll know this now the deer of course is a prey animal the reason it's doing this is to stay very very aware of its environment the Wolves up here apex predators they don't have to worry as much about what's in their environment they're looking for a few cues that smell of deer where the otter broke through the ice over there those are the kind of places that a wolf is going to take notice and go over and check it out the deer they have to be constantly aware they're way down there on the ladder there are prey species and so they're walking out constantly and as humans we generally want to be very aware of our environment there's nothing wrong with it if you are power hiker and you just like to go fast and strong to your next destination but if you want to try going slower and seeing more here's what we do all we're gonna do is mimic that style of the deer and we humans I said that anybody can do this but there's a mental aspect to it if you're a parent and you have kids and they like to stop by the trail you can you know what it's like to want to just come on kids let's go even just as somebody that's walking through the woods you've probably felt this there's that urge for us to just go and get to our destination so this tool gets us to stop and pay attention to our surroundings and it's so simple all we're gonna do is we're gonna choose a number for our number of steps and we're gonna choose a number for our pause time so let's say I'm going to choose eight steps and then for seconds for my pause time that means that as I walk I'm gonna walk eight steps I'm gonna stop for four seconds take in my surroundings then I'm gonna start moving again eight steps four if that is too much and it's just making you anxious you can do thirty steps in four seconds if you want to go much slower you can do two steps in 10 seconds completely adaptable and all you have to do is hold yourself to it for the duration of I might say I'm only going to do it for this stretch of trail see what happens you're going to tend to slow down mentally you're gonna take in more of your surroundings and if you're out and you're not wanting to be seen by other people for whatever reason their eyes are not going to pick you up in the same way in fact you are expanding your circle of awareness so much the chances are you're gonna see that other person before they see you try this out again super super simple and you can adapt it to whatever your environment is and whatever your patience level is tell me in the comments how it works for you did it help you to see more animals did it heighten your awareness of the woods share also share any other tactics or skills that you use especially if they are simple ones that have really helped you to become more aware in the woods and see more wildlife and to not be seen by as many people thanks for watching you