White-tailed deer

White-tailed deer
Male (buck or stag)
Female (doe) O. v. nelsoni with juveniles (fawns)
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Secure  (NatureServe)[2]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Artiodactyla
Family:	Cervidae
Subfamily:	Capreolinae
Genus:	Odocoileus
Species:	O. virginianus
Binomial name
Odocoileus virginianus (Zimmermann, 1780)
Subspecies
38, see text
White-tailed deer range map
Synonyms
Dama virginiana Zimmermann, 1780 Dama virginianus Zimmermann, 1780

The white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), also known commonly as the whitetail and the Virginia deer, is a medium-sized species of deer native to North, Central and South America. It is the most widely-distributed mainland ungulate herbivore in the Americas; coupled with its natural predator, the mountain lion (Puma concolor), it is one of the most widely-distributed terrestrial mammal species in the Americas and the world. Highly adaptable, the various subspecies of white-tailed deer inhabit many different ecosystems, from arid grasslands to the Amazon and Orinoco basins; from the Pantanal and the Llanos to the high-elevation terrain of the Andes.^[3] Globally, the white-tailed deer has been introduced (primarily for sport hunting) to New Zealand, the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean (Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico),^[4] and some countries in Europe (mainly the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Romania and Serbia).^[5][6]

In North America, the white-tailed deer is very common (even considered a nuisance in some areas) in states to the east and south of the Rocky Mountains, including southwestern Arizona, with the exception of the American West Coast and Baja California Peninsula, where its ecological niche is filled by the black-tailed deer (in the Pacific Northwest) or the mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) from that point west except for mixed deciduous riparian corridors, river valley bottomlands, and lower foothills of the northern Rocky Mountain region from Wyoming west to eastern Washington and eastern Oregon, and north to northeastern British Columbia and southern Yukon, including in the Montana valley and foothill grasslands. The westernmost population of the species, known as the Columbian white-tailed deer, was once widespread in the mixed forests along the Willamette and Cowlitz River valleys of western Oregon and southwestern Washington, but current numbers are considerably reduced, and it is classified as near-threatened by the IUCN. This population is separated from other white-tailed deer populations.^[7]

Texas is home to, by far, the most individual white-tailed deer of all U.S. states, Canadian provinces, or Latin American countries, with an estimated population of 5.3 million, with both wild deer and farmed herds, the latter raised for large rack size and breeding.^[8] High populations of white-tailed deer are known to exist on the Edwards Plateau of Central Texas, as well as in Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. The conversion of land adjacent to the Canadian Rockies to agricultural use, and partial clear-cutting of coniferous trees (resulting in widespread deciduous vegetation), has been favorable to the white-tailed deer and has extended its distribution to as far northwest as the Yukon. Populations of white-tailed deer around the Great Lakes have expanded their range north and westward, also due to conversion of land to agricultural use, with local caribou, elk, and moose populations declining. White-tailed deer are crepuscular, meaning they are most active at dawn and dusk, sporadically resting throughout the day and night.^[9]