Whitetail deer have good eyesight and acute hearing, but depend mainly on their sense of smell to detect danger. Their coats become grayish lose their spots by their first winter. At birth, fawns are spotted with white in coloration and weight between 1.5 and 2.5 kg. 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. Scent from these glands is used for intraspecies communication and secretions become especially strong during the rutting season. 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. 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. 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. 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. Ideal whitetail deer habitat would contain dense thickets (in which to hide and move about) and edges (which furnish food). 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. 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. Their range reaches throughout Central America to Bolivia. Whitetail deer inhabit most of southern Canada and all of the mainland United States except two or three states in the west.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |