Whitetail Deer

A whitetail deer is brown all over except its belly, the underside of its tail, and a small patch on its throat. They are white. The average weight for and adult is 100 to 350 pounds. The buck is normally larger and weights more than the doe. They have two seasonal coats a summer coat and winter coat. The summer coat is a light red-brown. The winter is a dark gray-brown. The deer appear bald during the transition between coats.

These are the summer and winter coats. The summer coat only has one layer. This prevents the deer from overheating. It also repels water well. It is course and about and inch long.

The winter coat has two layers. The top layer repels water and snow. It is also course, about 2 inches long. The second layer is soft and fluffy to insulate the deer from the cold air.

The bucks grow antlers in the spring and summer. The antlers grown in a velvet casing, that dries up and falls off in early fall. The buck will then use their antlers to fight for doe, and protect them from other bucks during rut. Rut is the deer's breeding season. One mature buck leads a herd of several doe. The buck will chase a male fawn away from the doe.

After rut, the doe will carry the fawn for about 200 days. The doe will have the fawn or fawns in early may to late june. There are late fawns, however. They can be born as late as september. The chances of the fawn surviving are very low, but some do. It isn't uncommon for a doe to have twins or even triplets. Triplets are rarer though. Scientific studies show that twins are more common than a single fawn. A fawn usually weights between 4 and 8 pounds at birth. They are covered in hundreds of white spots to camouflage them. They also have very little scent, to reduce the chances of a predator finding them. The doe leaves the fawn alone for the first few weeks of life. She only returns every 3 or 4 hours to feed and clean the fawn. The fawn will start to follow the doe when it's about 2 or 3 weeks old. It will begin to nibble grass and leaves at about a month old. It will be weaned at about 2 months old. The fawns spots will fade away in fall, when they grow their winter coat.

The whitetail deer normally stay in a home range of 40 to 90 acres. The deer's home range varies by the season and the deer's gender. They tend to stay in a 1.5 mile area during summer and roam a lot more during rut. Whitetail deer are very adaptable. They are known to live anywhere from deserts to marshes.

Deer also have a wide range of foods. Some foods are herbs, tree bark, twigs, sprouts, moss, lichens, fungi, corn, soybeans, apples, and acorns. What they eat also depends on where they live.