White-tailed Deer

Description:

The White-tailed Deer is distinguished from the Mule Deer by the smaller size of its ears, the color of its tail, and most strikingly, by antler shape. In Whitetails, the main beam of the antlers grows forward rather than upwards, and each tine develops as its own separate branch rather than being split into a forked pair. These species also run differently when they are alarmed. Mule Deer stot, a boing-boing-boing motion in which all four feet leave and hit the ground with each bound, whereas White-tailed Deer spring forward, pushing off with their hind legs and landing on their front feet. Males are about 20% larger than females. Males are 0.85 – 2.4 m long and weigh 22 – 137 Kg.

Habitat:

White-tailed deer are very widespread in North America. These Deer are adaptable browsers, feeding on leaves, twigs, shoots, acorns, berries, and seeds, and they also graze on grasses and herbs. In areas where they live alongside Mule Deer, the species naturally separate ecologically, the Whitetails staying closer to moist streams and bottomlands, the Mule Deer preferring drier, upland places. .White-tailed deer are the only native animals that routinely browse plants 4 to 5 feet above the ground. They eat about five pounds per day (dry weight) of hundreds of species of both native and non-native plants but have definite preferences for certain plants, fruits and nuts. Some of their favorites include Japanese honeysuckle, acorns, grapes, apples, persimmons, greenbrier, blackberry, maple, blackgum, grasses, corn, clover, summer weeds, and sumac.