The white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), also known as the Virginia deer or simply as the whitetail, is a medium-sized deer native to the United States (all but five of the states), Canada, Mexico, Central America, and in South America as far south as Peru. It has also been introduced to New Zealand and some countries in Europe, such as Finland and the Czech Republic.
The species is most common east of the Rocky Mountains, and is absent from much of the western United States, including Nevada, Utah, California, Hawaii, and Alaska (though its close relatives, the mule deer and black-tailed deer Odocoileus hemionus, can be found there).
Archaeologists have found remains of animal bones, including deer bones dating as far back as 350,000 years ago. In prehistoric times, deer were used for more than just the meat they offered; almost every part of the deer had a use. Their bones were used for tools; their skins were made into warm clothing and the sinew (a tough fibrous tissue) to hold together buildings. Throughout history, deer have always been plentiful and were a main source of food for people all over the world.
Deer have also played an important part in the development of this country. Some say our country would not have advanced so quickly without the aid of the meat and skins the deer offered to the Native Americans and the early settlers. When guns became more popular in the 1700’s, deer hunting became much easier for man. The early American colonists were able to feed their families as they settled in the new world. Native Americans also hunted deer with their newly acquired rifles. They not only hunted for the meat that was offered, but also the skins that would protect their people in the harsh winters.
However, as America became more populated and the practice of animal breeding became more general, the meat offered by the deer became less important to those that hunted them. Cattle were soon becoming the number one choice for meat and deer hunting soon became a sport for most. The unrestricted hunting resulted in depleting of the herds. Soon, the deer was close to becoming nonexistent in the heavily populated areas and individual states started to assume the responsibility of managing the herds to protect them for the future generations.
In 1900, the Lacy Act was passed. It was the United States first federal wildlife law. This law prohibits trade in wildlife that has been illegally taken, possessed, transported or sold. In 1906 the deer population was put under more protection with the creation of conservation departments. Without these laws to protect the deer, they very well might have been extinct today. However, because of the laws put in place to protect the deer, the whitetail has become the most populated deer in the world, therefore making it possible for those of us who live for deer hunting season to participate in one of America’s oldest activities known to mankind.
The deer's coat is a reddish-brown in the spring and summer and turns to a grey-brown throughout the fall and winter. The deer can be recognized by the characteristic white underside to its tail, which it shows as a signal of alarm by raising the tail during escape. There is a population of white-tailed deer in the state of New York that is entirely white (except for areas like their noses and toes)—not albino—in color.
Size and weight
The North American male deer (also known as a buck) usually weighs from 130 to 300 pounds but, in rare cases, bucks in excess of 375 pounds have been recorded. In 1926, Carl J. Lenander, Jr. took a Whitetailed buck near Tofte, MN that was estimated at 511 pounds live weight. The female (doe) usually weighs from 90 to 200 pounds. Length ranges from 62 to 87 inches, including the tail, and the shoulder height is 32 to 40 inches. White-tailed deer from the southern states tend to be smaller than in temperate populations, averaging 77–110 pounds .
Vision
Deer have dichromatic (two-color) vision; humans have trichromatic vision. So what deer do not see are the oranges and reds that stand out so well to people.
Antlers
Males re-grow their antlers every year. About 1 in 10,000 females also have antlers, although this is usually associated with hermaphroditism. Bucks without branching antlers are often termed "Spikehorn", "spiked bucks" or "spike bucks". The spikes can be quite long or very short. Research in Texas has shown that the length and branching of antlers is genetic and can be influenced by diet. Healthy deer in some areas that are well fed can have eight-point branching antlers as yearlings (one and a half years old). The number of points, the length or thickness of the antlers are a general indication of age but cannot be relied upon for positive aging. A better indication of age is the length of the snout, body posture, weight, teeth wear, and the color of the coat, with older deer tending to have longer snouts and grayer coats. Some say that deer that have spiked antlers should be culled from the population to produce larger branching antler genetics (antler size does not indicate overall health), and some bucks' antlers never will be wall trophies. Where antler growth nutritional needs are met (good mineral sources, i.e., calcium) and good genetics combine it can produce wall trophies in some of their range. Spiked bucks are different from "button bucks" or "nubbin' bucks", that are male fawns and are generally about six to nine months of age during their first winter. They have skin covered nobs on their heads. They can have bony protrusions up to a half inch in length, but that is very rare, and they are not the same as spikes.
Antlers begin to grow in late spring, covered with a highly vascularised tissue known as velvet. Bucks either have a typical or non-typical antler arrangement. Typical antlers are symmetrical and the points grow straight up off the main beam. Non-typical antlers are asymmetrical and the points may project at any angle from the main beam. These descriptions are not the only limitations for typical and non-typical antler arrangement. The Boone and Crockett or Pope & Young scoring systems also define relative degrees of typicality and atypicality by procedures to measure what proportion of the antlers are asymmetrical. Therefore, bucks with only slight asymmetry will often be scored as "typical". A buck's inside spread usually ranges from from 3–25 in. Bucks shed their antlers at the end of the breeding season, typically from late December to mid February.
Diet and predation
Whitetail deer eat large varieties of food, commonly eating legumes and foraging on other plants, including shoots, leaves, cacti, and grasses. They also eat acorns, fruit, and corn. Their special stomach allows them to eat some things that humans cannot, such as mushrooms that are poisonous to humans and Red Sumac. Their diet varies in the seasons according to availability of food sources. They will also eat hay and other food that they can find in a farm yard. Whitetail deer have been known to opportunistically feed on nestling songbirds, and well as field mice, and birds trapped in Mist nets.
The white-tailed deer is a ruminant, which means it has a four-chambered stomach. Each chamber has a different and specific function that allows the deer to quickly eat a variety of different food, digesting it at a later time in a safe area of cover. The Whitetail stomach hosts a complex set of bacteria that change as the deer's diet changes through the seasons. If the bacteria necessary for digestion of a particular food (e.g., hay) are absent it will not be digested.
There are several natural predators of white-tailed deer. Gray wolves, cougars, American alligators and (in the tropics) jaguars are the more effective natural predators of adult deer. Bobcats, lynxes, bears and packs of coyotes usually will prey on deer fawns. Bears may sometimes attack adult deer while lynxes, coyotes and bobcats are most likely to take adult deer when the ungulates are weakened by winter weather. The general extirpation of natural deer predators over the East Coast (only the coyote is now widespread) is believed to be a factor in the overpopulation issues with this species. Many scavengers rely on deer as carrion, including New World vultures, hawks, eagles, foxes and corvids (the latter three may also rarely prey on deer fawns).
Reproduction
Males compete for the opportunity of breeding females. Sparring among males determines a dominance hierarchy. Bucks will attempt to copulate with as many females as possible, losing physical condition since they rarely eat or rest during the rut. The general geographical trend is for the rut to be shorter in duration at increased latitude. There are many factors as to how intense the "rutting season" will be. Air temperature is one major factor of this intensity. Any time the temperature rises above 40 degrees Fahrenheit, the males will do much less traveling looking for females, or they will be subject to overheating or dehydrating. Another factor for the strength in rutting activity is competition. If there are numerous males in a particular area, then they will compete more for the females. If there are fewer males or more females, then the selection process will not need to be as competitive.
Females give birth to 1–3 spotted young, known as fawns, in mid to late spring, generally in May or June. Fawns lose their spots during the first summer and will weigh from 44 to 77 pounds by the first winter. Male fawns tend to be slightly larger and heavier than females. For the first four weeks, fawns mostly lie still and hide in vegetation while their mothers forage. They are then able to follow their mothers on foraging trips. They are weaned after 8–10 weeks. Males will leave their mothers after a year and females leave after two.
Communication
White-tailed deer communicate in many different ways using sounds, scent, body language, and marking. All white-tailed deer are capable of producing audible noises, unique to each animal. Fawns release a high-pitched squeal, known as a bleat, to call out to their mothers. Does make maternal grunts when searching for their bedded fawns. Grunting produces a low, guttural sound that will attract the attention of any other deer in the area. Both does and bucks snort, a sound that often signals danger (blowing). As well as snorting, bucks also grunt at a pitch that gets lower with maturity. Bucks are unique in their grunt-snort-wheeze pattern that often shows aggression and hostility. Another way white-tailed deer communicate is with their white tail. When a white-tail deer is spooked it will raise its tail to warn the other deer in the area that can see it.
Marking
White-tailed deer possess many glands that allow them to produce scents, some of which are so potent they can be detected by the human nose. Four major glands are the pre-orbital, forehead, tarsal, and metatarsal glands. It was originally thought that secretions from the pre-orbital glands (in front of the eye) were rubbed on tree branches; recent research suggests this is not so. It has been found that scent from the forehead or sudoriferous glands (found on the head, between the antlers and eyes) is used to deposit scent on branches that overhang "scrapes" (areas scraped by the deer's front hooves prior to rub-urination). The tarsal glands are found on the upper inside of the hock (middle joint) on each hind leg. Scent is deposited from these glands when deer walk through and rub against vegetation. These scrapes are used by bucks as a sort of "sign-post" by which bucks know which other bucks are in the area, and to let does know that a buck is regularly passing through the area—for breeding purposes. The scent from the metatarsal glands, found on the outside of each hind leg, between the ankle and hooves, may be used as an alarm scent. The scent from the Interdigital glands, which are located in between the hooves of each foot, emit a yellow waxy substance with an offensive odor. Deer can be seen stomping their hooves if they sense danger through sight, sound, or smell, this action leaves an excessive amount of odor for the purpose of warning other deer of possible danger.
Throughout the year deer will rub-urinate, a process during which a deer squats while urinating so that urine will run down the insides of the deer's legs, over the tarsal glands, and onto the hair covering these glands. Bucks rub-urinate more frequently during the breeding season. Secretions from the tarsal gland mix with the urine and bacteria to produce a strong smelling odor. During the breeding season does release hormones and pheromones that tell bucks that a doe is in heat and able to breed. Bucks also rub trees and shrubs with their antlers and head during the breeding season, possibly transferring scent from the forehead glands to the tree, leaving a scent other deer can detect.
Sign-post marking (scrapes and rubs) are a very obvious way that white-tailed deer communicate. Although bucks do most of the marking, does visit these locations often. To make a rub, a buck will use its antlers to strip the bark off of small diameter trees, helping to mark his territory and polish his antlers. To mark areas they regularly pass through bucks will make scrapes. Often occurring in patterns known as scrape lines, scrapes are areas where a buck has used its front hooves to expose bare earth. They often rub-urinate into these scrapes, which are often found under twigs that have been marked with scent from the forehead glands.
Human interactions
In the US, the species is the state animal of Arkansas, Illinois, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and South Carolina as well as the provincial animal of Saskatchewan. It is one of the state animals of Louisiana. The profile of a white-tailed deer buck caps the Vermont coat-of-arms and can be seen in the Flag of Vermont and in stained glass at the Vermont State House. It is the national animal of Honduras. It is also the provincial animal of Finnish province of Pirkanmaa. Texas is home to the most white-tailed deer of any other U.S. state or Canadian province, with an estimated population of over four million. Notably high populations of white-tailed deer occur in the Edwards Plateau of Central Texas. Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, Illinois, Wisconsin, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and Indiana also boast high deer densities. In many U.S. states and Canadian provinces, hunting for white-tailed deer is deeply ingrained in local cultures and is central to the economy of many rural areas.
