White-tailed deer

White-tailed deer

Buck-Stag(Male)

1. The graceful and adaptable White-tailed Deer is a strictly American species, with no close relatives on other continents. Today’s Black-tailed (Mule) Deer and White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) have evolved from primitive deer of the genus Odocoileus. The White-tailed Deer is the oldest species of this family. It first appeared in the southern part of North America some four million years ago.

2. This deer is tan or reddish-brown in the summer and grayish-brown in the winter, with certain areas remaining white all year round. Fawns are spotted with brown tails and a white underside. 

3. When sensing danger, the deer raises its tail-this is called ‘flagging.’ Showing this large white patch on the underside of the tail signals an alarm to other deer and helps a fawn follow its mother to safety.

4. The deer is a great jumper and runner. It can reach speeds of up to 58 kilometres per hour. 

5. Like a cow, the white-tailed deer’s stomach has four compartments. This allows food to be processed more efficiently and means that the deer can feed on things that other mammals cannot process. 

6. The most striking feature of this deer, and the source of its name, is its triangular foot-long tail.

Female- Doe

7. The white-tailed deer can make vertical leaps of over two and a half metres and horizontal leaps of nine metres-that’s almost as long as a school bus.

8. White-tailed Deer stand about 90 cm tall at the shoulder. Adult males (bucks) typically weigh 68 to 102 kg and adult females (does) 45 to 73 kg.

9. The deer can be active at any time, but is typically nocturnal, which means it is mostly active at night. Its diet consists mostly of green plants, nuts, and in the winter, wood vegetation.

10. Bucks have antlers, not horns. Horns are permanent keratin structures found on cattle, sheep, etc. Antlers, one of the fastest growing animal tissues in the world, are bones that drop off and regrow every year!

11. Deer are aged by the number, stage of eruption, and wearpatterns of their teeth, much like horses.

12. One unusual characteristic of the white-tailed deer is that the doe leaves her fawn unattended for hours at a time. The fawn has very little scent and its spotted coat provides natural camouflage, which keeps it safe from predators. The doe returns a few times a day to feed the fawn. Does and fawns usually stay together for about a year, sometimes two.

13. For most of the year, bucks and does stay in separate groups, but during the winter, larger groups of deer gather together. This helps to keep winter trails cleared and offers protection from predators.

14. The smooth-flowing gallop of the White-tailed Deer contrasts sharply with the stiff-legged, 
bounding gait of the Mule Deer.

15. Whitetails have several external glands that produce distinctive scents. The glands are located inside the split on all four hooves, on the outside of the lower hind leg, and inside the rear legs at the hock.  Whitetails use the scents from these glands to communicate with other animals.