Check your notes with the following information

 Summer/Spring – thin reddish-brown fur  Fall/Winter – thicker grayish-brown fur  White tail used as a warning signal  White belly  White spots on Fawn’s back for camo

 Bucks: lbs avg.  Does: lbs avg.  Fawns: lbs avg.

 Grow new every year  Start in April  Covered in Velvet until late summer  Velvet = soft, fuzzy covering over growing antler  Lots of blood flow in velvet  Antlers shed in January  Used to fight for mates, mark territory

 Breed in late Oct-early Nov  Gestation: 7 months  Polygamous – one buck breeds many does  Young born in May, 1-3 fawns per litter  Young weaned at weeks, hang around Mom for a few months afterward  Maturity:Bucks – 1.5 yrs Does – 6 months

 Non-migratory  1-2 square mile home range  Life expectancy: 2-3 years (max – 15)  Generalist herbivore (browser) prefer new growth last resort – tree bark  Crepuscular – most active at dawn and dusk

 Can jump 8 feet

 Hearing: very sensitive – detect danger  Smell: very sensitive – detect danger and communicate with other deer  Vision: colorblind, limited depth perception, lots of rods  Communication: grunts, snorts, wheezes secrete scents from glands & urine

As habitat quality improves…. - deer size increases - antler size increases - breeding activity increases CWD – brain infection in deer (mad cow) EHD – virus transmitted by midges/flies that causes hemorrhaging and lesions (blue- tongue)

 Since early 1900’s, White-tailed deer pop has grown from less than 1 million to over 30 million in the US  Deer like the suburbs because…. Plenty of food They prefer the more open habitat Few predators  Deer like roadways because it provides food (sunny openings for new growth)

 Deer do not see well in bright light of day but they do see well at dark  Eyes with lots of rods  Deer do not see color well  Crepuscular – active at dawn and dusk  Prefer edge habitat (food & cover)

 Summit County has higher numbers of collisions: more people, more roads, more cars leads to more collisions  Belmont county has more hunting kills more opportunity (space) hunting has a higher priority

 Relationship between hunting data and collision data: areas with more hunting experience fewer collisions  Is this a cause-effect relationship? maybe…as hunting has increased in Summit, collisions have gone down