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Whitetail Deer Research Paper

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A young deer is walking through the woods. All of the sudden its mother is shot. Many people know the story of the fawn named Bambi. However, many don't know much about his kind, the whitetail deer. Many people only think of deer as an animal to hunt and eat its meat, but it’s much more. In order to fully understand the whitetail deer, one must understand its complex anatomy, its interesting way of mating, and its simple diet.
The whitetail deer, or Odocoileus virginianus, is a mammal in the cervidae family. Because of this, they are one of the few creatures with antlers. Antlers are projections from the head that are connected to, and part of, the skull. Antlers vary in size and contrary to popular belief, are based on genetics and not health. …show more content…

The mating rituals begins with a rut. Ruts start with males proving their dominance with a grunt-snort-wheeze pattern. Then the males begin to fight each other by attacking each other with their antlers. They do this to earn the right to every doe in the area. Each doe usually have one fawn in its first mating season, but will likely have twins in each of the following years. Fawns are born with white spots on their backs making them easy to see. Does are very protective of their newborn fawns, only leaving them for short intervals to graze for food. When the mother is absent, the fawn will lay motionless on the forest floor, camouflaged from predators (American Expedition 2017). After one month the fawn will start to follow the mother around. One to two months later it will lose the white spots. Fawns mature at one year be will not be mated until they are 18 months old. In the wild the deer will grow to be around six feet tall and weigh about 200 pounds. However the largest deer recorded are found in their native regions of Minnesota and Ontario.
Even though whitetail deer can grow to large sizes they don't even eat meet to do it. Deer are strictly herbivores that don't even chew. A deer’s stomach consists of four chambers. Because of this, they can eat some poisonous mushrooms that are lethal to humans. However, deer mainly eat legumes, shoots, and members of the grass family. Deer use

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