Deer Deer

For the last two hours I have been sitting in a third floor study room looking down into a ravine at three white-tailed deer. Given that I don't see a ton of wildlife (with the definite exception of grey squirrels) on the Hamilton campus, I couldn't write about anything besides these deer. Now that I've been able to observe them for an extended period of time, I can relate what they do moment to moment firsthand.

I always been under the impression that deer move around a lot, probably because whenever I see them they are running to get out of the way of my car. However, these three deer have not moved more than 20 feet as long as I have been watching.  In fact, the most they moved was when a squirrel in a nearby tree startled them. Pawing around in the snow, lying down in a little bed of snow, nosing each other, and standing bolt upright in alarm every once in awhile have been their chief activities. I got a little curious about what they could possibly be finding in the snow, and why they kept nosing each other, so I did a little research.

It turns out that winter is a really tough time for deer, despite their adaptations. In the winter, the microorganisms in a deer's stomach that aid it in digestion are different than in other seasons, allowing them to digest different foods in different seasons. This is why it can be so harmful to feed deer. They can still starve on a full belly, if their belly is full of indigestible food. In the winter, they live almost entirely off of woody twigs from trees, or brush underneath the snow. When I saw them nosing pawing at the snow, they were attempting to unearth some tasty dogwood or blueberry plants.

Watching the deer carefully grooming one another prompted me to discover that deer coats are incredible. First off, they have completely different coats for summer and winter. Their summer coats have twice as many hairs as their winter coats, and the individual hairs are completely different. The summer hairs are thin and used to cool the deer off, while the winter hairs are thicker and hollow, providing excellent insulation. Even their color changes season to season. In the winter the deer is darker colored, allowing them to soak in as much warmth from the sun as possible.

It is really interesting to watch these animals in their natural environment, infinitely more gratifying than a zoo. Although we see deer very often and their population is sky high, my heart still jumps a little whenever I see these beautiful creatures.

"Home of #69 Doe-In-Rut® Buck Lure." The Whitetail Deer Coat: A Coat of Many Functions. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2015.

Rice, Thurman B. Living. Chicago: Scott, Foresman, 1940. Maine Department of Inland Fishing and Wildlife. Web. 22 Feb. 2015.

"What Do Whitetail Deer Eat?" What Do Whitetail Deer Eat? N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2015.