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White-tailed deer - ODOCOILEUS VIRGINIANUS
Class: Animals with Milk Glands (Mammalia)
The Name "Deer": "Deer" comes from the German word "Tier," which simply means "animal."
Location: Southern Canada southward to northern South America.
Habitat: Terrestrial. Temperate to tropical deciduous forest.
Description:In summer the coat is reddish-brown, and in winter gray-brown. The underside of the tail is completely white. Only the males have antlers. Their branches point upward at regular intervals from the gracefully curving main stem. The 39 subspecies vary widely in size: length of head and body up to six and a half feet, with a shoulder height of about a yard. The tail can be 14 inches long. It can weigh about 450 pounds.
Behavior: This deer gathers in small herds, usually of not more than a dozen animals of the same sex. It feeds during the day and at night on branches and leaves of bushes in winter, but prefers to eat tender grass and herbs in summer. If alarmed, it bounds swiftly away into dense vegetation with its tail raised. This "white flag" signals danger, and perhaps assists the group to re-form.
Reproduction: Pairs may form briefly at mating. The female gives birth after about 7 months of gestation to one or two fawns, whose coats are speckled with white. The young can walk a few hours after they are born, but remain quietly hidden in scrub waiting for their mother to return to feed them.
Go to the Artiodactyla Page to learn more about all the even-toed hoofed animals.
Or go to the Deer Index to study other
deer.
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