White tail Deer

Whitetail Deer have a top speed of 35-40 MPH and they do not have gall bladders. Want to know more?

1.Based on hunter reports, about one deer in 30,000 is an albino.

2.Melanistic deer are very dark sometimes even black and results from overproduction of pigment and is less common than albinism.

3.Albinism is a recessive trait and both parents must carry the gene before it can occur in their offspring.

4.The speed at which antlers grow, also makes them the fastest growing structures in the animal kingdom.

5.Antler growth is usually complete by the end of August

6.The deer genus was given the name Odocoileus by Rafinesque in 1832

7.A doe giving birth in areas of good food will have twins. However triplets are common as well as occasional quadruplets.

8.Largest body weight on record of a Whitetail deer is 511 pounds.

9.Recent Estimates put the Deer Population in the United States at around 30 million animals

10. The whitetail deer (Odocoileus virginianus), is named for it's signature tail and the white under part.

11. According to scientists there are 38 Sub-species of Whitetail Deer.

12. A whitetail buck usually weighs 130 to 220 pounds, but have been recorded at well over 350 Pounds.

13. Market gunning, unregulated hunting and poor land-use practices severely depressed deer populations in the early 1900s. By about 1930 the U.S. population was thought to number about 300,000 animals.

14. A Whitetail buck will shed his antlers every year, usually sometime in late December through Feb.

15. Whitetails have an average life span of 8 to 11 years.

16. Deer do not have a gall bladder on their livers. This allows them to eat vegetation that would kill domestic animals.

17. The members of the deer family are ruminants, having a four-compartmented stomach, which allows the deer to feed very rapidly.

18. A Whitetail has a top speed between 35 to 40 miles per hour.

19. A deer's gestation period is 200 to 205 days, most of the fawns being born in the latter part of May or the first part of June.

20. Deer need 10 to 12 pounds of food per day to satisfy their needs.

21. The Whitetail Deer is the most abundant Big Game animal in North America.

22. The average whitetail stands between 36 and 40 inches high at the top of the shoulder.

23. The Florida Key deer, Odocoileus virginianus clovium, is the smallest sub-species of our native deer.

24. There is one authenticated record of a deer kept in captivity that lived to be nineteen years old.

25. A deer can clear an 8-foot hurdle from a standing position.

26. Deer swim well and at a good pace. They have been clocked at speeds up to 13 miles per hour.

27. At birth a baby doe weighs about 4 1/2 pounds while a buck weighs 5 1/2 pounds.

28. The fawns are born over a period of time that may extend from ten minutes up to two hours.

29. By the time the fawns are twenty minutes old, they can walk slowly on very shaky legs.

30. Recent Estimates put the Deer Population in the United States at around 30 million animals

31. About 40 percent of the young does may breed in their first autumn so that they give birth when they are one year old.