Michigan State Game Mammal

White-tailed Deer

(Odocoileus virginianus)

Adopted in 1997.

Designated the state game mammal after the successful lobbying efforts of a group of Zeeland fourth graders. Found in every Michigan county, the white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus, is an important natural and economic resource.

An animal of incredible beauty and power, white-tailed deer are able to run up to 40 miles per hour, jump 9 foot fences, and swim 13 miles per hour. The white underside of its tail is waved when running and flashed as a warning when danger is sensed. Both native Americans and settlers relied on the white-tailed deer for buckskin and food.

Description of the Michigan State Game Mammal

States that have named the White-tailed deer as their official state mammal and/or animal:

Arkansas | Illinois | Michigan | Mississippi | Nebraska | New Hampshire
Ohio | Oklahoma | Pennsylvania | South Carolina | Wisconsin

Common Names

white-tailed deer; whitetail deer; Columbian white-tailed deer; Key deer; Coues deer;  Texas white-tailed deer; sandhill deer; common deer; jumping deer; flag-tailed deer; bannertail; long-tailed deer; Virginia white-tailed deer; Virginia deer

Physical Characteristics

Head and body length is 150 to 200 cm, tail length is 10 to 28 cm, and height at the shoulders is between 80 and 100 cm.

Odocoileus virginianus dorsal coloration differs in shading locally, seasonally, and among subspecies; however in general it is grayer in the winter and redder in the summer. White fur is located in a band behind the nose, in circles around the eyes, inside the ears, over the chin and throat, on the upper insides of the legs and beneath the tail. Whitetail deer have scent glands between the two parts of the hoof on all four feet, metatarsal glands on the outside of each hind leg, and a larger tarsal gland on the inside of each hind leg at the hock. Scent from these glands is used for intraspecies communication and secretions become especially strong during the rutting season. Males possess antlers which are shed from January to March and grow out again in April or May, losing their velvet in August or September. At birth, fawns are spotted with white in coloration and weight between 1.5 and 2.5 kg. Their coats become grayish lose their spots by their first winter. Whitetail deer have good eyesight and acute hearing, but depend mainly on their sense of smell to detect danger.

Food Habits

Whitetail deer feed on a variety of vegetation, depending on what is available in their habitat. In eastern forests, buds and twigs of maple, sassafras, poplar, aspen and birch (to name a few) are consumed, as well as many shrubs. In desert areas, plants such as huajillo brush, yucca, prickly pear cactus, comal, ratama and various tough shrubs may be the main components of a whitetail's diet. Conifers are often utilized in winter when other foods are scarce. Whitetail deer are crepuscular, feeding mainly from before dawn until several hours after, and again from late afternoon until dusk.

Reproduction

Most whitetail deer (particularly males) mate in their second year, although some females occasionally mate as young as seven months. Bucks are polygamous although they may form an attachment and stay with a single doe for several days or even weeks until she reaches oestrus. Does are seasonally polyoestrous and usually come into heat in November for a short twenty-four hour period. If a doe is not mated, a second oestrus occurs approximately 28 days later. Mating occurs from October to December and gestation is approximately 6 and a half months. In her first year of breeding, a female generally has one fawn, but 2 per litter (occasionally 3 or 4) are born in subsequent years. Fawns are able to walk at birth and nibble on vegetation only a few days later. They are weaned at approximately six weeks. Life span in the wild is 10 years, but whitetail deer have lived up to 20 years in captivity.

Behavior

Whitetail deer are the most nervous and shy of our deer. They wave their tails characteristically from side to side when they are startled and fleeing. They are extremely agile and may bound at speeds of up to 30 miles per hour through tangled terrain in a forest. Whitetail deer are also good swimmers and often enter large streams and lakes to escape predators or insects or to visit islands. Their home ranges are generally small, often a square kilometer or less. Whitetail deer do not migrate to a winter range but yard up in their own territories during heavy snow. They are notorious for continually using the same pathways when foraging, but will not bed down during the day in areas that they have used previously.

Whitetail deer are generally considered solitary, especially in summer. The basic social unit is a female and her fawns, although does have been observed to graze together in herds of up to hundreds of individuals. Females generally follow their mothers for about two years, but males leave the group within the first year. Bucks may form transient groups of 2-4 in the summer, but these disband prior to the mating season. Males begin rutting as early as September, and at this point become entirely preoccupied with obtaining matings. They do not guard harems (as with elk) but rather fight each other individually, clashing antlers to gain access to a particular female.

Whitetail does are painstakingly careful to keep their offspring hidden from predators. When foraging, females leave their offspring in dense vegetation for about four hours at a time. While waiting for the female to return, fawns lay flat on the ground with their necks outstretched, well camouflaged against the forest floor. Fawns withhold their feces and urine until the mother arrives, at which point she ingests whatever the fawn voids to deny predators any sign of the fawn.

Whitetail deer are not especially vocal, although young fawns bleat on occasion. Injured deer utter a startlingly loud "blatt" or bawl. Whistles or snorts of disturbed whitetails are the most commonly heard sounds.

Habitat

Whitetail deer are able to survive in a variety of terrestrial habitats, from the big woods of northern Maine to the deep saw grass and hammock swamps of Florida. They also inhabit farmlands, brushy areas and such desolate areas of the west such as the cactus and thornbrush deserts of southern Texas and Mexico. Ideal whitetail deer habitat would contain dense thickets (in which to hide and move about) and edges (which furnish food).

There are 16 subspecies of white-tailed deer in North America. Subspecies are distinguished by geographic location, body size, coloration, antler growth, and physiological, biochemical, and behavioral differences .

1. O. virginianus ssp. borealis: from central Ontario and Quebec south to southern
   Illinois, and from central Minnesota to the East Coast
2. O. virginianus ssp. clavium: Florida Keys
3. O. virginianus ssp. couesi: central Arizona south through Mexico and southwestern
   New Mexico
4. O. virginianus ssp. dakotensis: southern Northwest Territories west into central
   Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and south through Alberta, the Dakotas, eastern Montana, central Wyoming, northern Colorado, and western Minnesota
5. O. virginianus ssp. hiltonensis: Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
6. O. virginianus ssp. leucurus: southwestern Washington and the western quarter of
   Oregon
7. O. virginianus ssp. macrourus: Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, northern Louisiana, eastern Texas, Kansas, and Nebraska, and southeastern South Dakota
8. O. virginianus ssp. mcilhennyi: southeastern Texas and southern Louisiana
9. O. virginianus ssp. nigribarbis: Blackbeard Island, Georgia
10. O. virginianus ssp. ochrourus: British Columbia to western Alberta, south through
    western Montana, Idaho, eastern Washington and Oregon, western Wyoming, northern Utah, and possibly a fringe of the border between northern California and Nevada
11. O. virginianus ssp. osceola: midwestern Florida, north into southern Alabama and
    Mississippi
12. O. virginianus ssp. seminolus: Florida
13. O. virginianus ssp. taurinsulae: Bulls Island, South Carolina
14. O. virginianus ssp. texanus: Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, western New Mexico
    and Colorado, and southeastern Wyoming
15. O. virginianus ssp. venatorius: Hunting Island, South Carolina
16. O. virginianus ssp. virginianus: Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennesee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama

Scientific name

The genus name Odocoileus is from the Greek words odon (tooth) and koilos (hollow) or "hollow tooth," in reference to the depressions in the crown of the molar teeth. The Latinized species name virginianus (of Virginia) refers to the state from which the species was first collected and described.

Taxonomic Hierarchy of the White-tailed Deer