The white-tail deer is absent from much of the western United States, including Nevada, Utah, and California (though its close relatives, the mule deer and black-tailed deer, can be found there). It does, however, survive within the Central and Northern Great Plains, and in the Northern Rocky Mountain Regions from Wyoming to Southeastern British Columbia. The conversion of land adjacent to the Northern Rocky Mountains into agriculture use and partial clear-cutting of coniferous trees has been favorable to the white-tailed deer.
The westernmost population, the Columbian white-tailed deer once was widespread in the mixed forests along the Willamette River (Willamette Valley Forests Ecoregion) and Cowlitz River Valleys of Western Oregon and Southwestern Washington (endangered).
There are also populations of Arizona (coues) and Carmen Mountains (carminis) white-tailed deer that inhabit the mountain mixed deciduous/pine forests of Arizona, New Mexico, and West Texas extending southwards into Mexico.
Description
The deer's coat is a reddish-brown in the spring and summer and turns to a grey-brown throughout the fall and winter. The deer can be recognized by the characteristic white underside to its tail, which it shows as a signal of alarm by raising the tail during escape.
The male (also known as a buck) usually weighs from 130 to 220 pounds (60 to 100 kg) but, in rare cases, animals in excess of 350 pounds (160 kg) have been recorded. The female (doe) usually weighs from 90 to 130 pounds (40 to 60 kg), but some can weigh as much as 165 to 175 pounds (75 or 80 kg).
Males one year of age or older have antlers. Bucks with very small antlers, about 3 in (7 cm) or less, are often termed "button bucks". Some may even have their antler pedicles hidden in the hair and can be mistaken for a doe. Antlers begin to grow in late spring, covered with a highly vascularised tissue known as velvet. Bucks either have a typical or non-typical antler arrangement. Typical antlers are symmetrical on both sides and the points grow straight up off the main beam. Non-typical antlers are asymmetrical and the points may project at any angle from the main beam. These descriptions are not the only limitations for typical and atypical antler arrangement. The Boone and Crockett or Pope & Young scoring systems also define relative degrees of typicality and atypicality by procedures to measure what proportion of the antlers are asymmetrical. Therefore, bucks with only slight asymmetry will often be scored as "typical". A buck's inside spread can be any where from 3–25 in (8–64 cm). Bucks shed their antlers when all females have been bred, from late December to February.
Behavior and reproduction
Females enter estrus, colloquially called the rut, in the fall, normally in late October or early November, triggered mainly by declining photoperiod. Sexual maturation of females depends on population density. Females can mature in their first year, although this is unusual and would occur only at very low population levels. Most females mature at one or, sometimes, two years of age.
Males compete for the opportunity of breeding females. Sparring among males determines a dominance hierarchy. Bucks will attempt to copulate with as many females as possible, losing physical condition since they rarely eat or rest during the rut. The general geographical trend is for the rut to be shorter in duration at increased latitude.
Females give birth to one, two or even possibly three spotted young, known as fawns in mid to late spring, generally in May or June. Fawns lose their spots during the first summer and will weigh from 44 to 77 pounds (20 to 35 kg) by the first winter. Male fawns tend to be slightly larger and heavier than females.
Whitetails communicate in many different ways including sounds, scent, and marking. All whitetail deer are capable of producing audible noises, unique to each animal. Fawns release a high pitched squeal, known as a bleat, to call out to their mothers. Does also bleat, as well as grunt. Grunting produces a low, guttural sound that will attract the attention of any other deer in the area. Both does and bucks snort, a sound that often signals danger. As well as snorting, bucks also grunt at a pitch thats gets lower with maturity. Bucks are unique, however, in their grunt-snort-wheeze pattern that often shows aggression and hostility.
Whitetails possess many glands that allow them to produce scents, some of which are so potent they can be detected by the human nose. Three major glands are the orbital, tarsal, and metatarsal glands. Orbital glands are found on the head, and scent is deposited from them by rubbing the head, often the area around the eyes, on hanging twigs. The tarsal glands are found on the lower outside of each hind leg. Scent is deposited from these glands when deer walk through and rub against vegetation. The metatarsal glands, found on the inside "knee" of each hind leg, are the most potent.
During the breeding season, deer will rub-urinate, a process during which a deer squats while urinating so that urine will run down the insides of the deer's legs. The deer then rubs its metatarsal glands together, rubbing the urine into the tuft of hair found at this location. Secretions from the metatarsal gland mix with the urine and bacteria to produce a strong smelling odor. Also in breeding season, does release hormones and pheromones that tell bucks the doe is in heat and able to breed.
Markings are a very obvious way that whitetail communicate. Although bucks do most of the marking, does visit these locations often. One form of marking is known as rubbing. To make a rub, a buck will use its antlers to strip the bark off of small diameter trees, helping to mark his territory and polish his antlers. Also to help mark territory, bucks will make scrapes. Often occurring in patterns known as scrape lines, scrapes are areas where a buck has used its front hooves to expose bare earth. Bucks usually then rub-urinate into these scrapes and scrapes are often found under twigs that have been marked with scent from orbital glands.
Range and population
Recent estimates put the deer population in the United States at around 30 million. Conservation practices have proved so successful that, in parts of their range, the white-tailed deer populations currently far exceed their carrying capacity and the animal may be considered a nuisance. Motor vehicle collisions with deer are a serious problem in many parts of the animal's range, especially at night and during rutting season, causing injuries and fatalities among both deer and humans. At high population densities, farmers can suffer economic damage by deer depredation of cash crops, especially in maize and orchards.
There is a population of white-tailed deer in New York State that is entirely white (except for areas like their noses and toes) - not albino - in color. The former Seneca Army Depot in Romulus, New York, has the largest known concentration of white deer. Strong conservation efforts have allowed white deer to thrive within the confines of the depot.
In the western portions of the United States and Canada, the white-tailed deer range overlaps with those of the black-tailed deer and mule deer. In the extreme north of the range, their habitat is also used by moose in some areas. White-tails may occur in areas that are also exploited by elk such as in mixed deciduous river valley bottomlands and formerly in the mixed deciduous forest of Eastern United States. In places such as Glacier National Park in Montana and several national parks in the Columbian Mountains (Mount Revelstoke National Park) and Canadian Rocky Mountains (i.e., Yoho National Park and Kootenay National Park), white-tailed deer are shy and more reclusive than the coexisting mule deer, elk, and moose.
Diet
The whitetail deer is a ruminant, which means it has a four-chambered stomach. Each chamber has a different and specific function that allows it to quickly eat a variety of different food, digesting it at a later time in a safe area of cover.
Whitetail deer eat large varieties of food, commonly eating legumes and foraging on other plants, including shoots, leaves, and grasses. They also eat acorns, fruit, and field corn or any kind of corn. Their special stomach allows them to eat some things that humans cannot, such as mushrooms that are poisonous to humans. Their diet varies in the seasons according to availability of food sources. Whitetail deer also eat meat.
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