White-Tailed Deer: Facts, Size, Diet, Antlers and Habitat

Appearance

A white-tailed deer’s coat changes with the seasons. In spring and summer it is a thin, reddish brown. In autumn the deer molts into a thicker gray-brown winter coat made of hollow hairs that trap heat, which helps northern deer survive deep cold. White fur marks the throat, a band around the muzzle, rings around the eyes, the inside of the ears, the belly and the inner legs.

The tail is brown above and white below. When a deer senses danger it often stamps a front hoof, snorts and then bounds away with the tail held high, showing a broad flash of white. Biologists still debate exactly who the signal is meant for; much evidence suggests it tells a predator that it has been seen.

Deer have large, mobile ears and eyes set on the sides of the head, giving a wide field of view. Like other deer, they see blue and yellow well but distinguish reds and oranges poorly, and they are very good at picking up movement in dim light. Rare color forms exist, including piebald deer with white patches and a famous all-white herd at the former Seneca Army Depot in New York.

How big are white-tailed deer?

White-tailed deer vary in size more than almost any other deer. In general they get bigger the farther they live from the equator. Northern bucks in the United States and Canada usually weigh 68–136 kg (150–300 lb), and a few in Minnesota, Ontario and Manitoba have topped 180 kg (400 lb). Does usually weigh 40–90 kg (88–198 lb).

Northern adults stand about 80–100 cm (31–39 in) at the shoulder and measure about 1.5–2 m (4.9–6.6 ft) from nose to rump. The Key deer of the Florida Keys and deer in parts of the tropics are much smaller, some no bigger than a large dog.

Antlers

Only bucks normally grow antlers. White-tail antlers have a main beam that curves forward, with several points, or tines, rising upward from it. A young buck in his first set may grow simple unbranched “spikes”, while well-fed bucks can carry eight or more points by their second autumn. Antler size depends on age, nutrition, especially protein and minerals, and genetics.

Antlers are bone. They start to grow in April or May, covered in a soft, blood-rich skin called velvet. By August or September the antlers harden, the velvet dries and the buck rubs it off on saplings. After the breeding season the antlers drop off, usually between late December and March, and a new set grows the next spring. Shed antlers are gnawed by mice, squirrels and porcupines for their calcium. Our guide to why deer shed their antlers explains the hormones and day length behind this yearly cycle.

Habitat and range

White-tailed deer live from southern Canada through most of the United States, Mexico and Central America into northern South America, reaching Peru and possibly Bolivia. They are absent from much of the far western United States, where the mule deer and black-tailed deer take their place, although white-tails follow river valleys west into the northern Rockies, eastern Washington and Oregon.

The species is a habitat generalist. Its favorite places are “edges”, where forest meets field, because they offer both cover and food. White-tails also live in swamps, prairie river corridors, cactus scrub in Texas and Mexico, tropical dry forest, savanna and high Andean grassland above 4,000 m (13,000 ft). Suburbs with parks, gardens and woodlots suit them very well.

People have introduced white-tailed deer to New Zealand, several Caribbean islands and parts of Europe. The biggest European population is in Finland, which grew from four deer brought from Minnesota in the 1930s to more than 100,000 animals. There is also a long-established herd in the Czech Republic.

What do white-tailed deer eat?

White-tailed deer are herbivores and mainly browsers, meaning they eat leaves, buds and twigs of shrubs and trees more than grass. They also eat herbs and wildflowers, called forbs, plus acorns and other nuts, fruit, mushrooms, farm crops and garden plants. In northern winters they survive on woody twigs and conifers such as northern white cedar. An adult can eat roughly 900 kg (2,000 lb) of plant food in a year.

Like cattle, deer are ruminants with a four-chambered stomach. They swallow food quickly, then rest in cover and bring it back up to chew again as cud. Rarely, they have been seen eating nestling birds or chewing bones for minerals. Read more in what do deer eat?

Behavior and communication

White-tailed deer are crepuscular, most active around dawn and dusk, and they bed down in thick cover for much of the day. They are not territorial in the usual sense and do not migrate long distances, but in snowy regions many gather in sheltered conifer stands called deer yards. Home ranges are often around 1 km² (0.4 sq mi) or less.

The basic social group is a doe with her fawns and often her grown daughters. Bucks live alone or in small bachelor groups outside the breeding season. Deer communicate with grunts, bleats and loud snorts, and with scent from glands on the head, legs and between the hooves. During autumn bucks rub saplings with their antlers and scrape bare patches of ground that act as scent “signposts”.

When chased, a white-tail can sprint at about 48–64 km/h (30–40 mph), leap fences around 2.4 m (8 ft) high and swim across rivers and lakes. See how fast can a deer run? for the details.

Reproduction and fawns

The breeding season, or rut, peaks in November in most of the United States and Canada, triggered by shortening days. In the far south and the tropics its timing varies widely. Bucks spar to settle rank, travel widely in search of does and eat little, losing much of their body condition. A doe is receptive for only about 24 hours; if she is not mated she cycles again about 28 days later.

Pregnancy lasts about 200 days, or 6.5 months. Fawns are born mostly in May and June. A young doe usually has one fawn, while older does commonly have twins and sometimes triplets. Newborns weigh about 1.5–2.5 kg (3.3–5.5 lb) and wear a reddish coat with white spots.

For the first few weeks the doe hides her fawns separately in vegetation and returns several times a day to nurse them. Fawns start following their mother at about four weeks old, are weaned at 8–10 weeks and lose their spots by early autumn. Young bucks leave their mother after about a year; young does often stay longer. Learn more in what is a baby deer called?

How long do white-tailed deer live?

Most wild white-tailed deer live only about 2–3 years, because hunting, road traffic, predators, disease and hard winters remove many young animals. A deer that survives these risks can reach 10 years or more, and the maximum recorded in the wild is about 20 years. In captivity white-tails have lived to about 23 years.

Predators and threats

Gray wolves, cougars and jaguars kill healthy adult deer, and American alligators take deer at the water’s edge in the Southeast. Coyotes, black bears, bobcats and golden eagles mainly take fawns. In much of the eastern United States, where large predators were wiped out, coyotes are now the main wild predator.

Today the biggest causes of death are human ones: regulated hunting, which state and provincial agencies use to manage deer numbers, and collisions with vehicles. Disease is a growing concern, especially chronic wasting disease, a fatal prion disease of deer, elk and moose that has spread to many US states and Canadian provinces, and hemorrhagic disease carried by biting midges.

Conservation status and overabundance

The IUCN lists the white-tailed deer as Least Concern. Unregulated market hunting and forest clearing cut North American numbers to a few hundred thousand by about 1900. Hunting laws, restocking and the loss of large predators then allowed a spectacular recovery to an estimated 30 million or more today. The Key deer and the Columbian white-tailed deer are listed under the US Endangered Species Act.

In many eastern forests the problem is now too many deer. Where densities are high, deer strip young trees and wildflowers up to a “browse line” about 1.5–1.8 m (5–6 ft) high, prevent forests from regenerating, reduce habitat for ground-nesting birds and help invasive plants spread. Deer also cause crop and garden damage and are involved in an estimated 1 million or more vehicle collisions a year in the United States.

Myths, facts and people

Myth: You can tell a buck’s age by counting antler points. Antler size and point number depend heavily on food and genetics, and a well-fed yearling can carry eight points. Wildlife biologists estimate age from tooth wear and replacement instead.

Myth: A fawn found alone has been abandoned. Does deliberately leave their fawns hidden while they feed and return to nurse them. A quiet, curled-up fawn is almost always fine and should be left where it is.

Fact: White-tails are expanding north. Warmer winters and forestry have let them spread into northern Ontario, Alberta and as far as the Yukon, where they meet moose and caribou.

The white-tailed deer has been important to people in the Americas for thousands of years, providing meat, hides for buckskin and bone and antler for tools. It is the state animal of several US states and a symbol of many parks. Today it is the most watched and most studied large mammal in North America, and for many people the white flash of a tail at the edge of a field is their most familiar wildlife encounter. The species shares much of its northern range with the moose, the largest member of the deer family.