Wildlife Watching Wednesday: The White-Tailed Deer
By: Tom Berg
White-tailed deer are a familiar sight for most of us as we drive along our local highways and country roads. They are often standing out in the middle of a field or pasture or along the edge of a woodlot, searching for tender vegetation to munch on. They are even found right in town, in back yards and school yards.
Although white-tailed deer are a common sight in our fields and woods today, many people don’t realize that just 50 or 60 years ago they were extremely rare in many Midwestern and eastern states. They had been hunted for food since settlers arrived in the 1700s and the early 1800s, and by the 1920s there were virtually no deer left in many states. Unrestricted hunting was the main problem, but drastic changes in habitat was another problem as farming took over the landscape.
By an interesting turn of fate, state wildlife biologists, hunters and other fellow conservationists were among the groups responsible for bringing deer back to the states where they were rare. It has been an incredible success story, and today deer are very common in most states in the eastern United States. For example, a recent population estimate for the state of Illinois was about 660,000 deer. In Indiana, there are an estimated 700,000 deer.
White-tailed deer are interesting creatures. The males (bucks) grow antlers, not horns, every year, and then shed them in January or February after breeding season ends. Females (does) have no antlers, and they give birth to one or two babies (fawns) each year in May or June.
Fawns are born with little or no scent, which helps keep them hidden from predators as they lie silently in the grass. The small white spots on their backs also helps camouflage them. Although most deer in the wild live to be only 3-6 years old, some do live to the ripe old age of nine or ten. Keep an eye out for them throughout the year!
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