A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Odocoileus virginianus
White-tailed deer vary in size across their range with the smallest subspecies living in southern Florida and ranging to animals that on the average are twice that size in the northern part of their range. They are reddish brown in the summer and tend toward gray/brown in the winter. Males are larger than females and have antlers that are shed and regrown annually. Fawns, such as this one, are spotted.
Forested areas of North America, but ranging as far south as northern South America. Increasingly common in suburban areas.
This fawn and its mother separated in heavy, tall grass when I surprised them at the edge of a wetland. The doe crossed the road but was out of sight when the fawn started to cross. She stopped and I snapped this photo. Then she ran at me; probably thought I was her Mom. Once she discovered her mistake she bolted back across the wetland. I didn't want to keep them separated as there are both wolves and bears in the area, so I hopped back in the car and continued down the road. I saw the doe cross the road back towards the wetland and I'm sure they linked back up again.
Spotted on Jul 15, 2013
Submitted on Jul 16, 2013
4 Comments
Beautiful
Plus we have only whitetails in our area. There are a few mule deer in western Minnesota, but this photo was taken in northwestern Wisconsin. Deer can sometimes be confused, but there is no doubt that this is a whitetail.
Many white-tailed deer keep their spots until they are almost full grown. This is most definitely a white-tail deer, as you can clearly see in the 3rd and 4th photos.
Only a juvenile whitetailed deer would be spotted. Due to the relative smallness of the head, I would judge this to be an adult, therefore not a whitetailed deer.