A major game species of North America found alone or in small groups. The deer’s coat is reddish-brown in the spring and summer and turns grey-brown throughout the fall and winter. The tail, which is white on the underside, is held aloft when the deer is alarmed or running. A medium-sized deer, the adult White-tailed Deer typically weighs between 90 to 220 lbs, with the record weight being close to 400 lbs. The male is known as a “buck,” and the female is known as a “doe.” A young deer, or “fawn,” is born with white spots, but will lose them during the first summer. The male has forwardly curved antlers, which grow to their largest size when the deer is 3-4 years old..
Forest, Grassland, Wetland
Whitetail deer inhabit most of southern Canada and all of the mainland United States except two or three states in the west. Their range reaches throughout Central America to Bolivia.
Abundant
Diurnal
A variety of vegetation, depending on what is available in their habitat
Whitetail deer are the most nervous and shy of our deer. They wave their tails characteristically from side to side when they are startled and fleeing. They are extremely agile and may bound at speeds of up to 30 miles per hour through tangled terrain in a forest. Whitetail deer are also good swimmers and often enter large streams and lakes to escape predators or insects or to visit islands. Whitetail deer are generally considered solitary, especially in summer. The basic social unit is a female and her fawns, although does have been observed to graze together in herds of up to hundreds of individuals.
Least Concern
