Georgia State Mammal: White Tailed Deer

Nature, State Animals 3 Minutes

Appearance

The coat of the White-tailed deer is a reddish-brown in the spring and summer and turns to a grey-brown throughout the fall and winter. The deer can be recognized by the characteristic white underside to its tail. It raises its tail when it is alarmed to warn the predator that it has been detected. An indication of a deer age is the length of the snout and the color of the coat, with older deer tending to have longer snouts and grayer coats. A population of white-tailed deer in New York is entirely white (except for areas like their noses and toes) – not albino – in color. White-tailed deer’s horizontally slit pupils allow for good night vision and color vision during the day. Males regrow their antlers every year. Males without branching antlers are often termed “spikehorn”, “spiked bucks”, “spike bucks”, or simply “spikes/spikers”. The spikes can be quite long or very short. The length and branching of antlers are determined by nutrition, age, and genetics. Spiked bucks are different from “button bucks” or “nubbin’ bucks”, which are male fawns and are generally about 6 to 9 months of age during their first winter. They have skin-covered nobs on their heads. They can have bony protrusions up to a half inch in length, but that is very rare, and they are not the same as spikes. Males shed their antlers when all females have been bred, from late December to February.

Habits and Lifestyle

White-tailed deer are usually considered solitary, particularly in summer. Their basic social unit is mother and fawns, although sometimes they do graze together in herds that can number hundreds of individuals. Bucks and does remain separate from each other except during the mating season. Bucks usually live alone or within small groups alongside other bucks. Deer living in deserts often migrate from summertime elevations down to warmer areas where there is more food available. White-tailed deer are crepuscular, and mainly feed starting before dawn until a few hours after the sun has risen, and again in the late afternoon until dusk. They use a number of forms of communication, such as sound, odor, body language, and marking with scratches. When alarmed, a White-tailed deer will raise its tail to warn other deer.

Diet and Nutrition

Whitetails are herbivores and feed on twigs, bark, leaves, shrubs, the nuts and fruits of most vegetation, lichens, and other fungi. Plants such as yucca, huajillo brush, prickly pear cactus, ratama, comal, and a range of tough shrubs can be the mainstay of a whitetail’s diet if it lives in a desert area. Though almost entirely herbivorous, White-tailed deer may opportunistically feed on nesting songbirds, field mice, and birds trapped in mist nets, if the need arises

Mating

Whitetails are polygynous, and bucks fight fiercely during the mating season, with winners able to mate with does in the area. The season runs from October to December. The gestation period is about 6 months. A female usually gives birth to one fawn in her initial year of breeding but 2 are born subsequently. Fawns can walk as soon as they are born and only a few days later are able to nibble on vegetation. When seeking food, mothers leave their offspring hidden amongst vegetation. A fawn starts to follow its mother as she goes off to forage when it is about 4 weeks old. At 8 – 10 months old, they are weaned. At one-year-old, young males leave their mothers but young females will often stay with them for two years. Most of them (particularly males) will breed in their second year.

Fun Facts for Kids

When White-tailed deer gather together and trample down snow in a particular area, this is called a “deer yard.”

White-tailed deer can jump vertically more than 8.2 feet and horizontally 354 in, which is almost the length of a school bus.

White-tailed deer swim well and can escape from predators through large streams and lakes.

Only the males grow antlers, and they shed them each year.

White-tailed deer are the shyest and most nervous of deer. When they are startled and run away, their tails wave from side to side.

Deer can smell human odor on underbrush for days afterward. Bucks will stay away from areas that have been visited by humans for weeks afterward.

Bucks usually lie on their right side when they go to sleep, and they face downwind, enabling them to employ their nose, ears, and eyes to detect danger in any direction.

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Published by pat frederick

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167 thoughts on “Georgia State Mammal: White Tailed Deer”

  4. Now Imgur isn’t working much, either! I’ve been trying and trying to upload a pic of my peony bushes but it’s not working. SMH

    Temp is up to 75 now with sunshine but windy….again….sigh. I’m sooooo tired of the wind!!!

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Well, I’ve still got a lot of pics saved in my free account; it could also be spotty internet reception – with this wind blowing, tree branches get in the way. Plus, I’m uploading from my HD on my computer so they aren’t “internet-ready,” so to speak.

        Liked by 1 person

  9. Just The News: “New York Judge Juan Merchan announced a verdict has been reached in former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial.

    It will be announced in the next thirty minutes, CNN reported, after the jury finishes filling out its verdict forms.

    The jurors will need to unanimously vote to either convict or acquit Trump over allegations that he falsified business records to conceal supposed hush money payments. He has been charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying his business records, and the jury will need to reach a verdict on each one.

    Possible outcomes of the verdict include a mixed verdict, where they find Trump guilty on some charges, and innocent on others; a “hung” jury where they failed to come to a unanimous verdict, and the judge would declare it a mistrial, conviction on all counts, or full acquittal. 

    The verdict will come after more than 11 hours of deliberation across two days.”

    Liked by 1 person

      1. I guess that’s up to that POS judge but I can’t imagine…..WTF knows any more??!!?? IDK if the jury decides that or what the process is.

        Liked by 1 person

  11. “The Trump Verdict: Guilty — Show trials and New York Justice”

    TECHNO FOG, MAY 30, 2024

    Trump Hush Money Trial: Jury Ends Deliberations For Today Without Verdict

    “Justice belonged to those who could enforce their will.”

    EXCERPT: “The jury has reached a verdict: Donald Trump has been found guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records.

    The trial – The People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump – lasted just over a month, part of a nearly ten year Democratic effort to convict Trump. The dirty work of Crossfire Hurricane and the Mueller investigation failed, the Fulton County prosecution is stayed pending appeal, and Special Counsel Jack Smith won’t get his cases to trial before the November 2024 election. But they always had New York – the State has made Trump and his company and his family a political target – and District Attorney Alvin Bragg came through with the early indictment.

    The target might have been Trump, but the real goal was to influence the 2024 election, no matter the shaky facts and dubious legal theories of the case. Democracy must be saved even through unlawful and unethical means. The enemies of society must be hunted, the obstacles to progress must be destroyed.

    As the years-long Trump investigation and prosecution continued, and as New Yorkers continue to deal with rampant crime and theft and felony assaults – which they often don’t even report due to “the revolving-door criminal injustice system” – Trump was pursued with rare intensity. The bodega shopkeepers, facing a shoplifting and armed robbery epidemic which empties their shelves and puts their lives at risk, are besides themselves. As are normal citizens whose safety is at risk daily. If only their interests were political. If only the perpetrator were the Republican presidential frontrunner and not a career criminal then perhaps they would see justice.

    In trial, venue matters. It’s strategic, it’s the selection of a favorable judge and jury. Monsanto is sued in San Fransisco and the jury pours them out for $289 million. Cook County (Illinois) is notorious for high jury verdicts. So too is Philadelphia and Lansing, Michigan. Corporate defendants tremble in fear at being sued in working class cities along the Gulf coast. Texas brings suit against the Biden Administration in the Southern District of Texas – Galveston Division because the one federal district judge there (a Trump appointee) will not hesitate to stop unlawful acts or policies. Hawaii brought suit in Honolulu against the Trump Administration and obtained a temporary restraining order against Trump’s travel ban from an Obama-appointed judge. He was reversed by the Supreme Court, but that process took over a year…..”

    https://technofog.substack.com/p/the-trump-verdict-guilty

    Liked by 1 person

  12. Speaker Mike Johnson

    @SpeakerJohnson

    My statement on President Trump trial verdict: Today is a shameful day in American history. Democrats cheered as they convicted the leader of the opposing party on ridiculous charges, predicated on the testimony of a disbarred, convicted felon. This was a purely political exercise, not a legal one. The weaponization of our justice system has been a hallmark of the Biden Administration, and the decision today is further evidence that Democrats will stop at nothing to silence dissent and crush their political opponents.   The American people see this as lawfare, and they know it is wrong—and dangerous. President Trump will rightfully appeal this absurd verdict—and he WILL WIN!

    Liked by 1 person

  17. Just The News: “Former President Donald Trump on Thursday expressed defiance in the wake of a guilty verdict in his New York criminal trial, calling the trial a “rigged” proceeding and blaming the Biden administration for the development.

    Trump was found guilty by a New York jury on 34 counts of falsifying business records. The trial first began in April and the verdict marked both the first prosecution and conviction of a former president in U.S. history. Trump’s sentencing is set for July 11.

    “This was a rigged, disgraceful trial and the real verdict is going to be Nov. 3 by the people,” he declared. “Everyone knows what happened here… it’s ok. I’m fighting for our country. I’m fighting for our Constitution.”

    “This was done by the Biden administration in order to hurt a political opponent,” he insisted. “We’ll keep fighting. We’ll fight to the end and we will win. This was a rigged decision right from day one… we will fight for our Constitution.”

    Bragg had charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with a 2016 payment his then-attorney, Michael Cohen, made to Stormy Daniels. He pleaded not guilty and has been steadfast throughout the case that it is part of a broader political witch hunt designed to derail his 2024 bid for the White House.

    During his remarks after the verdict, Trump excoriated acting Justice Juan Merchan, whom he asserted should never have been permitted to preside over the case. Trump had twice asked Merchan to recuse himself in light of his daughter, Loren Merchan’s, employment with Authentic, a company that boasts both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris as clients. Merchan declined in both instances.”

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Bragg claimed in his 5 hour summation that President Trump committed election crimes. that is a federal crime–AND WAS NEVER CHARGED. it was an out and out lie that the defense could not defend against or refute. this whole thing is a farce.

      Liked by 1 person

  18. I am adding a short daily prayer to the board. I would invite each of you, if you wish, to also add one or maybe two of your own liking. I do not want to stifle anyone but please limit yourself to one or two religious postings. here’s one I found that I liked.

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