Ohio State Animal: White-tailed Deer

The Ohio legislature adopted the white-tailed deer, (Odocoileus virginianus.) It is the state's largest game animal, and as the state animal in May 1988. The white-tailed deer can be found in all of Ohio's 88 counties, although about 80 percent of the herd lives in hilly eastern Ohio.

States that have named the White-tailed deer as their official state mammal and/or animal:

Ohio State Animal: White-tailed Deer

In 1988, the Ohio General Assembly made the White-tailed Deer Ohio's official state mammal. The White-tailed Deer, Odocoileus virginianus, has been extremely important in Ohio's history. The state tree, the Ohio Buckeye, is named because its nut resembles a deer, or buck's, eye. Buckeye is based on the Native American word "hetuck," meaning "eye of the buck." White-tailed Deer have been in Ohio since the end of the last Ice Age. At this point in time, the deer lived in the portion of southeastern Ohio where there were no glaciers. The deer played a very important role in the lives of practically all of Ohio's prehistoric Native American cultures. Ohio's native people used the deer's meat for food, the hide for clothing, and the bones and antlers for tools. Native Americans also used the hides, antlers, and bones for ceremonial purposes. Archaeologists have found deer antlers sheathed in copper at a prehistoric site, and Hopewell craftspeople made shaman characters wearing deer antlers.

With the change from forest to farm as well as unrestricted hunting caused large numbers of deer to die.

As the population of settlers in Ohio grew, the deer population decreased. Hunting restrictions were established in 1857. However hunting seasons that lasted over a month with no bag limits continued through most of the 1800s. In 1882, A.W. Brayton wrote, "The Virginia Deer is rarely met with in Ohio at present, except as domesticated in parts." There were no hunting seasons between 1897 and 1899.

By 1904, White-tailed Deer were extirpated from Ohio. In the 1920s and '30s, a limited restocking program began as well as the natural migration of deer from surrounding states into Ohio. By 1937 they were reported in 28 counties. By 1943, they were recovered [glossary] enough to begin a regulated hunting season, with hunting in all counties by 1956. By 1995, the deer population had reached 550,000. Deer are found in all 88 counties and are kept in control by a regulated deer season. The importance of the deer in Ohio was confirmed in 1988, when it was recognized as the official state animal.

Common Names

white-tailed deer; whitetail deer; Columbian white-tailed deer; Key deer; Coues deer; Texas white-tailed deer; sand-hill deer; common deer; jumping deer; flag-tailed deer; banner-tail; long-tailed deer; Virginia white-tailed deer; Virginia deer

Characteristics of the White-tailed Deer

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.

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. 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. 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. Scent from these glands is used for intraspecies communication and secretions become especially strong during the rutting season. 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. At birth, fawns are spotted with white in coloration and weight between 1.5 and 2.5 kg. Their coats become grayish lose their spots by their first winter. Whitetail deer have good eyesight and acute hearing, but depend mainly on their sense of smell to detect danger.

Food Habits

Whitetail deer feed on a variety of vegetation, depending on what is available in their habitat. In eastern forests, buds and twigs of maple, sassafras, poplar, aspen and birch (to name a few) are consumed, as well as many shrubs. In desert areas, plants such as huajillo brush, yucca, prickly pear cactus, comal, ratama and various tough shrubs may be the main components of a whitetail's diet. Conifers are often utilized in winter when other foods are scarce. Whitetail deer are crepuscular, feeding mainly from before dawn until several hours after, and again from late afternoon until dusk.

Reproduction

Most whitetail deer (particularly males) mate in their second year, although some females occasionally mate as young as seven months. Bucks are polygamous although they may form an attachment and stay with a single doe for several days or even weeks until she reaches oestrus. Does are seasonally polyoestrous and usually come into heat in November for a short twenty-four hour period. If a doe is not mated, a second oestrus occurs approximately 28 days later. Mating occurs from October to December and gestation is approximately 6 and a half months. In her first year of breeding, a female generally has one fawn, but 2 per litter (occasionally 3 or 4) are born in subsequent years. Fawns are able to walk at birth and nibble on vegetation only a few days later. They are weaned at approximately six weeks. Life span in the wild is 10 years, but whitetail deer have lived up to 20 years in captivity.

Behavior

Whitetail deer are the most nervous and shy of our deer. They wave their tails characteristically from side to side when they are startled and fleeing. They are extremely agile and may bound at speeds of up to 30 miles per hour through tangled terrain in a forest. Whitetail deer are also good swimmers and often enter large streams and lakes to escape predators or insects or to visit islands. Their home ranges are generally small, often a square kilometer or less. Whitetail deer do not migrate to a winter range but yard up in their own territories during heavy snow. They are notorious for continually using the same pathways when foraging, but will not bed down during the day in areas that they have used previously.

Whitetail deer are generally considered solitary, especially in summer. The basic social unit is a female and her fawns, although does have been observed to graze together in herds of up to hundreds of individuals. Females generally follow their mothers for about two years, but males leave the group within the first year. Bucks may form transient groups of 2-4 in the summer, but these disband prior to the mating season. Males begin rutting as early as September, and at this point become entirely preoccupied with obtaining mating. They do not guard harems (as with elk) but rather fight each other individually, clashing antlers to gain access to a particular female.

Whitetail does are painstakingly careful to keep their offspring hidden from predators. When foraging, females leave their offspring in dense vegetation for about four hours at a time. While waiting for the female to return, fawns lay flat on the ground with their necks outstretched, well camouflaged against the forest floor. Fawns withhold their feces and urine until the mother arrives, at which point she ingests whatever the fawn voids to deny predators any sign of the fawn.

Whitetail deer are not especially vocal, although young fawns bleat on occasion. Injured deer utter a startlingly loud "blatt" or bawl. Whistles or snorts of disturbed whitetails are the most commonly heard sounds.

Habitat

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. They also inhabit farmlands, brushy areas and such desolate areas of the west such as the cactus and thorn-brush deserts of southern Texas and Mexico. Ideal whitetail deer habitat would contain dense thickets (in which to hide and move about) and edges (which furnish food).

There are 16 subspecies of white-tailed deer in North America. Subspecies are distinguished by geographic location, body size, coloration, antler growth, and physiological, biochemical, and behavioral differences .

Scientific name

The genus name Odocoileus is from the Greek words odon (tooth) and koilos (hollow) or "hollow tooth," in reference to the depressions in the crown of the molar teeth. The Latinized species name virginianus (of Virginia) refers to the state from which the species was first collected and described.

Ohio Law

The law designating the white-tailed deer as the official Ohio state animal is found in the Ohio Revised Code, General Provisions, Chapter 5, Section 5.032.

Memorializing the return of the white-tailed deer to Ohio, the General Assembly adopted, and Governor Richard F. Celeste signed, legislation designating the white-tailed deer as "the official animal of the state" in 1988.

GENERAL PROVISIONS
CHAPTER 5: STATE INSIGNIA; SEALS; HOLIDAYS
SECTION 5.032

5.032 State animal.

The animal, Odocoileus virginianus, commonly known as the white-tailed deer, is the official animal of the state. Naming the white-tailed deer as the official animal of the state does not relieve the division of wildlife of its duty to manage the deer population and its distribution.

Effective Date: 05-11-1988

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Cervidae
Subfamily: Capreolinae
Genus: Odocoileus
Species: O. virginianus

Ohio State

State Animals

Ohio Symbols

Ohio State Animal

White-tailed Deer

(Odocoileus virginianus)

Adopted in 1988.