White-tailed Deer

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{{Taxobox | color = pink | name = White-tailed Deer | status = Conservation status: Lower risk | image = White-tailed_deer.jpg | image_width = 200px | regnum = Animalia | phylum = Chordata | classis = Mammalia | ordo = Artiodactyla | familia = Cervidae | genus = Odocoileus | species = O. virginianus | binomial = Odocoileus virginianus | binomial_authority = Zimmermann, 1780 }} The White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus), also known as the Virginia Deer, is a medium-sized deer found throughout most of the continental United States, southern Canada, Mexico, Central America and northern portions of South America far south as Peru. The species is most common east of the Rocky Mountains, and is absent from much of the western United States, including Nevada, Utah and California. It does, however, survive in the Northern and Canadian Rocky Mountain regions of United States and Canada, and in the Willamette Valley and Columbia River delta of Oregon and Southwestern Washington (endangered). There are also populations of white-tailed deer that inhabit the mountain forests of Arizona, New Mexico, and West Texas extending into Mexico. As a result of introductions, white-tailed deers are found also in northern Europe. It can adapt to a variety of habitats.

1 Description
2 Range and population
3 Classification
4 References
5 External links

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Description

Image:WhitetailedDeerFawn.jpg The deer can be recognized by its characteristic white tail, which it raises as a signal of alarm and is typically seen in its escape. The male (also known as a buck) usually weighs from 130 to (in rare cases) 350 pounds (60 to 160 kg), depending on the gene pools and feed in a certain area. The female (doe) usually weighs between 90 and 130 pounds (50 to 60 kg), but some weigh in excess of 130 pounds (60 kg). 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 bucks shed their antlers around February, and begin growing them back in the early spring. In northern regions, the mating season (also known as the rut) is short, about two weeks long, while the breeding season in Mexico is nearly all year long. The mating season is dependent on the moon and sun.

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Range and population

Some recent estimates put the deer population in the United States at around 30 million. In 1930, the population numbered only about 300,000, but through successful conservation programs and seasonal hunting, the deer population is once again high, to the point at which the animal is considered a nuisance in some areas. Traffic accidents involving deer are a serious problem in many parts of the country, especially at night and during rutting season.

The species is the state animal of Arkansas, Illinois, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Wisconsin, as well as the provincial animal of Saskatchewan. Texas is home to more white-tailed deer than any other U.S. state or Canadian province, with an estimated population over four million.

White-tailed deer were introduced to Finland during the 1950s. This project was very successful, and the deer have recently begun spreading through northern Scandinavia and southern Karelia. Many Swedish hunters consider the deer as a foreign element in the Scandinavian ecosystem.

For many states in the U.S. and some Canadian provinces, hunting for white-tailed deer is a very important cultural activity and is central to the economy in many rural areas.

A sub-race of the White-tailed deer is white - not albino - in color. The former Seneca Army Depot in Romulus, New York has the largest known concentration of white deer known to exist. Strong conservation efforts have allowed this race to thrive within the confines of the depot.

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Classification

White-tailed deer populations in United States and Canada east of the Rocky Mountains are somewhat hard to distinguish at a subspecific level. In the Eastern United States, local deer populations were at an all-time low during the 1940's and deer were transferred to these locations from several other localities for restocking purposes. The only distinctiveness is probably regional, with the largest deer in size and antlers occurring in the Northern United States and Canada where they also have access to agricultural lands and crops such as corn and apples. The Northern and Dakota whitetailed deer are the largest white-tailed deer with some of the largest antlers. The Florida Key Deer and the white-tailed deer subspecies that occur in Central and South America, are some of the smallest.

Distinctions occur particularly in populations along the Gulf Coast and in the Western portions of the United States, where they share their range with Black-tailed Deer and Mule Deer. The Northwestern white-tailed deer (O. v. ochrourus) that inhabits much of Southern British Columbia, Idaho, Eastern Washington, and Western Montana is a large white-tailed deer that is somewhat yellowish-red in color and primarily occupies mixed coniferous forests of lower elevation hills, mixed deciduous forest river-bottomlands/riparian corridors in the Northern Rocky Mountains and is more secretive. This habitat is also exploited by American Moose in some areas. The higher elevation coniferous forests, mountain meadows, and open grassland areas are exploited by Mule Deer and Rocky Mountain elk/Wapiti. The Northwestern white-tailed deer's habitat has spread courtesy of access to agricultural development and farm lands. The grayish-brown Columbian white-tailed deer (O. v. leucurus) also inhabits mixed deciduous forest river-bottomlands and riparian corridors of the Columbia, Cowlitz, and Willamette Rivers of Western Oregon and Southwestern Washington, leaving the upland Old Growth Coniferous rainforests to the Columbian Black-Tailed Deer and Roosevelt elk/Wapiti (which seasonally shares the riparian corridors and river-bottomlands with the white-tailed deer). This deer is endangered due to hunting and the majority of land converted to agricultural and livestock use.

The small, gray Arizona white-tailed deer (O. v. couesi) is a fairly gregarious form that inhabits the higher elevation mixed oak and pine forests of the Chiricahua Mountains that extend into Mexico, leaving the actual lowland desert habitats to Mule Deer. This subspecies has the longest relative tail length, but relatively small antlers. The Carmen Mountains white-tailed deer (O. v. carminis) are similar in ecology to the Arizona white-tailed deer occupying mixed forests of higher elevation mountain forests as well. Both, the Arizona white-tailed deer and Carmen Mountains white-tailed deer live in mountain habitat surrounded by deserts and irrigation projects that have taken water supply away from their habitats have impacted their numbers. The surrounding lower elevation deserts are exploited by the more drought-tolerent Mule Deer.

The Texas white-tailed Deer (O. v. texanus) and Venezualan white-tailed Deer (O. v. apurensis and/or O. v. gymnotis) of the Llanos Region are most gregarious of white-tailed deer adapted to open savanna habitat and have perhaps on average, the largest antlers and longest tails relative to their body size. These deer also have greater size differences between males and females than other white-tailed deer. The medium-sized Texas white-tailed Deer has quite impressive antlers for a southern subspecies. The Avery Island white-Tailed deer (O. v. mcilhennyi) of the wetlands along the Gulf Coast, have narrower antlers than the Texas White-tailed Deer, and there is less size difference between males and females.

The Columbian white-tailed deer and Key deer are endangered forms.