The White-tailed Deer

By Al Lowe
Contributor

This is the familiar deer of eastern North America. Its scientific name ‘Oedicoilus virginianus’ indicates that it was first named by the early settlers inn the eastern colonies.
The range of this deer is almost all of North America, from Canada to Panama. It is scarce in the far west, where the Mule Deer flourishes. There are many subspecies, including a tiny one in Florida (Key Deer), where a buck is about as big as a sheep dog and runs to about 50 pounds. The largest type is found in the northern States and Canada, where a buck may go up to 300 pounds or so. The record, by the way, is a buck shot in Michigan, which weighed 425 pounds.
Ernest Thompson Seton estimated the original population of deer in North America to be about 40 million. By 1900, they had nearly all gone from their eastern ranges. But at the turn of the century, they began to come back. For one thing, strict game laws were introduced in both Canada and the U.S. More important, though, was the opening up of the forest by logging. The new growth on logged areas is ideal for deer, so they flourished. In fact, the deer became well established in areas where they had never been before. Many of these are in Northern Ontario.
Many people do not realize the reproductive capability of the deer. If there is plenty of food, most does will have twin fawns, and some will have triplets. If the population is not kept in check, they will eat all of the available food, destroy their own range, and then starve in large numbers. In 1951, 50,000 deer starved in Michigan alone, and in 1956, at least two million deer died from lack of food.
In north Ontario, we still have a resident population of predators, timber wolves, coyotes, lynx and bobcats. These, plus hunting, should suffice to keep the herd at a healthy and manageable level, able to survive the winters. Only an unusual combination of severe weather factors would be likely to cause very heavy starvation.
The deer is an animal which has adapted very well to civilization, - in some cases much too well. They can literally ruin a farmer. They will eat corn, all grains, any kind of sprouting vegetable, market garden produce, and especially apples. In one case, in Maine, an entire orchard, of 175 trees, was destroyed in one night by six deer.
It is quite evident now that we need have no fear of losing the deer population, as long as we have reasonable game laws and abide by them. One of the major enemies of the deer in populated areas is the free-running dog. In the wilderness, it is the Timber Wolf. But the chief enemy of the deer is not the dog, or the wolf, or even man himself. It is the grim spectre of overpopulation.