Whitetail Deer Facts

Height
Male deer are frequently one meter or more at the shoulder.

Weight
Average of 100 to 150 lbs, but can be up to 300 lbs.

Food
The animals are cud chewers, and have a four-chambered stomach. Deer feed on twigs, leaves, bark, and buds of bushes and saplings, and on grasses and other plants, feeding most actively at twilight. Deer can be quite selective about certain foods, and are known to favor heavily fertilized ornamental and garden plants above others that have not been so well fertilized.

Life Span
Unless killed by hunters, predators, disease, or famine, a wild deer may live up to 20 years.

Reproduction
Gestation is about 200 days, and one to three fawns are born in the spring.

Colors
Whitetail deer are generally brown in color with a prominent white underside of their tails. A whitetail's hair appears bluish-grey in winter. New hair that grew in during autumn provides whitetails with added insulation. The tips on these new hairs are dark, giving the winter hide its richer hue.

Habitat
The white-tailed deer is found in most parts of the U.S. as well as from Alaska to Bolivia.

Interesting Facts
Except in the caribou, antlers form only on males, and their growth is controlled by the male sex hormone.

Antlers are used to slash territorial markings on trees or bushes, to make threatening displays, and to combat other males. Usually the fighting is stylized and harmless, but occasionally males of large species lock antlers and die of exhaustion or starvation.

Musk, which comes from a gland on the abdomen of the musk deer, is used in medicine and perfumes.

Bucks most often bed by laying on their right side and facing downwind, which allows them to use their eyes, ears and nose to detect danger approaching from any direction.

Deer are quick and skillful swimmers, often taking to water when frightened. Deer can easily swim across lakes or rivers at over 10 miles per hour.

When running, a deer takes a long stride, with its tracks spaced as much as 25 feet apart.

Just two deer without predation can produce a herd of up to 35 deer in just 7 years.

Studies have shown that acorns can constitute 38 to 76 percent of a whitetail's diet in November and December.

Sub Species
Deer, the common name for hoofed, mammals of the family Cervidae, are usually characterized by bony, often branching antlers that are shed and regenerated annually. The family contains 17 genera and 38 species.