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| Odocoileus virginianus Zimmermann, 1780 |
The White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) is a medium sized deer found throughout the 48 contiguous states of the United States. It can adapt to a variety of habitats from desert-like climates in Arizona and New Mexico to the mountains of West Virginia and all of the way down to Mexico, and up into Canada.
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 they will frequently weigh in excess of 130 lb (60 kg). The deer's coat is a reddish - brown in the spring and summer, and turns to a grey-brown throughout the fall. 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.
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 hunting, the deer population is once again healthy and soaring.
The White-tailed Deer is the state animal of New Hampshire, Ohio and Wisconsin.