Deer: A Comprehensive Guide to Species, Habitat & Characteristics

Deer

Introduction to Deer

Deer, a hoofed animal, prized for centuries as game for food, sport, and commercial purposes. Deer are found throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and South America, and in northern Africa. There are nearly 100 different kinds, including the caribou, elk, reindeer, and moose. Largest is the moose, more than six feet (1.8 m) tall at the shoulders. Smallest is the Chilean pudu, almost as small as a rabbit.

The Chilean pudu is the smallest of all deer.

Male deer are called stags, bucks, bulls, or harts. Females are does, cows, or hinds. The young are fawns or calves.

Deer are even-toed ungulates—they are hooved animals with an even number of toes on each hoof. They are related to cattle and goats and are like them in having four stomach sections. Food partially digested in one stomach section is returned to the mouth as a cud to be chewed again. Ruminant Deer have solid, branched antlers. Except for the Père David's deer, which grows two sets of antlers a year, deer grow antlers in the spring and shed them in winter. Except for reindeer and caribou, only male deer have antlers. The antlers at first are very tender and covered with velvety hair. Gradually they become hard as stone.

Deer have short-furred coats. Colors range from reddish brown to gray on the upper surface and usually white below. Markings that appear on certain deer are borne on the face, throat, and tail. Young deer are covered with white spots that disappear, in most species, when a new coat of fur is grown.

Some deer live in grasslands where they group together and browse for meadow herbs. Others live in forests and feed on leaves, twigs, buds, and bushes. Deer breed annually in late September. One to three young are born in late spring. Fawns remain with their mothers for about a year. The normal lifespan is 15 to 20 years.

Deer and Humans

The deer of America have been celebrated in literature and history. The early settlers were indebted to the animal for food and clothing. Deer meat, venison, is still considered a choice meat. It was especially useful to early settlers since it can be preserved by sun-drying or smoking. The process, called jerking, makes the meat light in weight. Large amounts can be carried easily. The animal's skin, called buckskin, is a soft and sturdy leather. Pioneers used buckskin to make moccasins, leggings, pants, coats, hats, and gloves. The leather is still considered valuable for clothing. Indians used deer antlers to make harpoons and picks.

Antlers of some deer are prized for ornamental purposes. Antlers of the roe deer are used in making umbrella handles. Elk antlers are sometimes used in handles of knives. The musk deer has an abdominal gland, called a pod, that secretes musk, which is used as a base for perfumes. Reindeer and caribou, which range over northern Europe and northern America, supply food and furs to the Lapps and Eskimos. They are also a means of transportation.

In some suburban areas, deer have become pests, destroying shrubs and gardens.

Who Grows Antlers Instead of Horns?

Many hoofed mammals, like the giraffe and okapi, grow horns. But elk and other deer are the only mammals that grow antlers. Antlers are not the same as horns. Antlers are temporary. They shed, but they grow back each year. Horns are permanent. They stay with an animal its whole life.

Antlers are covered by a soft, velvetlike layer. When the covering dies, the deer rub it off. Horns are covered by skin. The covering makes the horns very hard and tough.

Its antlers help deer stay cool. Warm blood rushes to its antlers. The outside air cools the blood. As a result, the animal’s whole body cools off.

Antlers are much larger than horns, too. Antlers sometimes look like tree branches. Their sharp points warn predators to stay away.

Deer belong to the family Cervidae of the order Artiodactyla.

The White-tailed Deer

The White-tailed, or Virginia, deer is the most common deer in the United States. It ranges from coast to coast, southward from southern Canada to northern South America. Those found in the north are the largest, measuring four feet (1.2 m) at the shoulders and weighing 200 to 400 pounds (90 to 180 kg). The coat is shiny red in summer and blue-gray in winter. The underparts and tail are white.

White-tailed deer live alone or in groups of one male and two or three females. A swift runner and high jumper, the deer can reach 30 miles per hour (48 km/h) and can leap as high as eight feet (2.4 m). When running from danger, it holds its white tail erect.

This deer was important to American pioneers for food and clothing and is still the most commonly hunted game mammal in the United States. It is destructive to orchards.

The smallest deer in North America, the key deer, is a dwarf subspecies of the white-tailed deer. It stands about 25 inches (64 cm) tall at the shoulder and weighs about 50 pounds (23 kg) or less. It is endangered in the wild; a small population exists in the National Key Deer Refuge on Florida's Big Pine Key.

Whose Hoofprint Looks Like a Heart?

The hoofprint of a white-tailed deer is shaped like a heart. The deer’s hoof is cloven (KLOH vuhn), or divided. Each foot has two large, curved toes. The curves leave a heart-shaped print in the dirt when the deer walks.

Deer use their hoofs for running quickly. But they also use them to signal danger. When a female senses trouble, she stomps her hoof hard on the ground. This tells other deer in the herd to run away.

Deer can run extremely fast. Their legs are long, thin, and light in weight. Running on their hoofs gives deer extra speed and bounce. Deer can usually outrun their enemies. A white-tailed deer can run up to 40 miles (64 kilometers) an hour. It can leap up to 20 feet (6.1 meters) in a single jump.

The white-tailed deer is Odocoileus virginianus; key deer, O. v. calvium.

Other Kinds of Deer

There are some 37 species of deer:

The Axis Deer

or Chital, lives on the plains and foothills of India. The animal measures three feet (90 cm) at the shoulder and is reddish brown with white spots.

The axis deer is Axis axis.

The axis deer has white spots and a white neck.The Barking Deer

or Muntjac, is found in southeastern Asia, especially in Indonesia. Its doglike bark is used as a mating call or cry of alarm. Unlike other deer, the male has tusklike upper canine teeth. The coat is reddish. The animal measures about two feet (60 cm) at the shoulder and weighs about 30 pounds (13.6 kg). The most common species is the Chinese, or Reeve's, muntjac.

The Chinese muntjac is Muntiacus reevesi.

The Brocket

is found from Mexico to South America. Its short antlers have no branches. The brocket is brown and measures two feet (60 cm) at the shoulders.

The brocket belongs to the genus Mazamba.

The Caribou

The Elk

The Fallow Deer

The Marsh Deer

lives in swampy regions of Brazil and Argentina. The largest South American deer, it stands four feet (120 cm) at the shoulder. Its coat is reddish in summer, brownish in winter. The population is endangered due to hunting and loss of habitat from swamp drainage for agriculture.

The marsh deer is Blastocerus dichotomus.

The Moose

The Mule, or Black-tailed, Deer

The Musk Deer

is native to forests and brush lands of Asia. This relatively small deer stands 20 to 24 inches (51 to 61 cm) at the shoulder and weighs about 20 to 24 pounds (9 to 11 kg). The coat, thick and grayish-brown, is sometimes marked with creamy spots. This species is endangered.

The musk deer is Moschus moschiferus.

Père David's Deer

is named for the French naturalist who was the first European to see the deer. Until his time it was unknown outside the gardens of the Summer Palace in Beijing, China. The original Chinese specimens were exterminated in the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, but the species survived through animals that had been sent to England. In 1989, specimens were reintroduced into China in two reserves: one near Shanghai, the other near Beijing. Père David's deer stands nearly four feet (120 cm) at the shoulder and is grayish buff.

Père David's deer is Elaphurus davidianus.

The Red Deer

The Reindeer

The Roe Deer

is found in Europe and Asia. It is a good jumper and climber and has a doglike bark. The roe deer measures two to three feet (60 to 90 cm) at the shoulders and weighs about 60 pounds (27 kg). The summer coat is yellow, the winter coat brown.

The roe deer belongs to the genus Capreolus.

The Sombar

is the largest and most common deer of southeastern Asia. It measures five feet (150 cm) at the shoulders and weighs up to 500 pounds (227 kg). The coat is dark brown. Like the hog and buffalo, the sambar wallows in mudholes, probably to rid itself of insects.

The sambar is Cervus unicolor, or Rusa unicolor.

The Sika

is found in eastern Asia, especially in Japan. It measures three feet (90 cm) at the shoulder. The summer coat is chestnut spotted with white; the winter coat is a dull brown with faded spots.

The sika is Cervus nippon.

The Swamp Deer, or Barasingha

is found in northern India. Despite its name, it prefers forests and grassy plains. It stands four feet (120 cm) at the shoulder and weighs up to 560 pounds (254 kg). In summer, the swamp deer's coat is light red spotted with white. The winter coat is a yellowish brown. This species is endangered.

The swamp deer is Cervus duvauceli.