White-tailed deer
Scientific Name: Odocoileus virginianus
White-tailed deer are widespread throughout the entirety of New York State. They have a distinct white underside of their tail and throat. Their coloration differs in shading locally, seasonally, and among subspecies; however in general it is grayer in the winter and redder in the summer. White fur is located in a band behind the nose, in circles around the eyes, inside the ears, over the chin and throat, on the upper insides of the legs and beneath the tail. Their offspring, fawns, are reddish brown with white spots along its back and sides.
Males possess antlers which are shed from January to March and grow out again in April or May, losing their velvet in August or September. Whitetail deer have good eyesight and acute hearing, but depend mainly on their sense of smell to detect danger.
Adult size: 62-86 in
Weight: 125-300 lbs
Life span: White-tailed deer can live up to 10 years in the wild
Maturity: 2 years
Litter size: 1-4
Fun Fact
Deer can run up to 35-40 miles per hour and jump over an 8-foot-high fence!
Diet
White-tailed deer eat a variety of vegetation including buds and twigs of maple, sassafras, poplar, aspen, birch, and other shrubs. They will also eat acorns and other seeds, lichen and fungus.
Habitat
White-tailed deer inhabit a wide variety of terrestrial habitats including old growth forests, successional forests, fields, wetlands, farmlands and brushlands. Ideal White-tailed deer habitat contains dense thickets and edge habitats where shelter and food are abundant.
Behavior
White-tailed deer are typically nervous and shy around humans. They wave their tails characteristically from side to side when they are startled and fleeing. They are extremely agile and may bound at speeds of up to 30 miles per hour through tangled terrain in a forest. Whitetail deer are also good swimmers and often enter large streams and lakes to escape predators or insects or to visit islands. They are notorious for continually using the same pathways when foraging, but will not bed down during the day in areas that they have used previously.
Whitetail deer are generally considered solitary, especially in summer. The basic social unit is a female and her fawns, although does have been observed to graze together in herds of up to hundreds of individuals. Females generally follow their mothers for about two years, but males leave the group within the first year.
Whitetail does are painstakingly careful to keep their offspring hidden from predators. When foraging, females leave their offspring in dense vegetation for about four hours at a time.
Whitetail deer are not especially vocal, although young fawns bleat on occasion. Injured deer utter a startlingly loud "blatt" or bawl. Whistles or snorts of disturbed whitetails are the most commonly heard sounds.
Reproduction and Life Cycle
Most white-tailed deer mate in their second year, though many females mate as young as 7 months. Bucks are polygamous, mating with multiple females, though they may develop bonds with a single female until she reaches estrus. Estrus in females is brief, lasting around 24 hours. White-tailed deer breed once yearly, between October and December. Gestation period is approximately 6.5 months. Fawns are born in the Spring and are usually weaned at 8-10 weeks.
Population Status
Least concern, often overpopulated
Viewing
Both rural and urban environments
Range
All of NYS.
For more information on White-tailed deer in New York please visit the NYSDEC page here.
