In my personal encounters with white-tailed deer, I have learned to truly admire their natural elegance and magnificent body structure. The way they move, listen and graze on a daily bases is extremely mesmerizing. It even gives off a sense of serenity and peacefulness. Their muscle definition is so amazing, to the extent that many people take hunting into consideration. Many people hunt this glorious animal and mount them as trophies for their homes; they consider the mount of a strong muscular buck to give off a sense of wealth and strength to their homes. My family and I consider it a form of male bonding; my brothers, cousins, and uncles and I get together to go hunting. We usually compete to see who shoots the biggest buck; we make this into our own personal competition. Some advice I would give to future hunters is if deer is shot at a short distance from where you are at, back off and give it time to die, wait overnight if it was shot in the evening. Bucks can have a great amount of strength even when shot and dying; a hit from a dying buck can lead to a severe injury. The best way to get more deer to pass through your blind, or cover spot, is by clearing a path through the cover that would be beneficial to the deer; deer usually would prefer the easy route to travel. Something very important to remember is to not leave before the legal shooting time is over, you could easily be mistaken for an animal. Probably the best time of the day to kill a buck is the last minute of shooting light. Do not leave your stand like me and most hunters tend to do, 10 minutes too early this can be very dangerous.
There are about 100 species of deer 30 of which are recognized, and have some characteristics in common. Deer are members of the order Artiodactyl, which simply means that they have hoofs and an even number of toes. The white-tailed deer can be tan or brown in the summer and they turn grayish brown in winter. White-tailed deer spend their summers grazing in the meadows and move into the forests during winter for protection from the elements. Only the male whitetail deer, known as bucks, have antlers, which bear a number of tines, or sharp points. During the mating season, also called the rut, bucks fight over territory by using their antlers in sparring matches. An adult male deer usually weighs up to 300 pounds. Female deer, called doe, have a gestation period of seven months; doe can conceive one to three young at a time, usually in May or June. White-tailed deer usually mate in November in the northern parts of their range and in January or February in the southern parts of their range. An adult female deer can weigh up to 125 pounds. The average height for a white tailed deer is 3.5 feet high. Young deer, called fawns, contain a reddish-brown coat with white spots that helps them blend in with their habitat. The white-tailed deer lives in wooded areas. In some areas, deer overpopulation is a problem. However, white tailed deer share their habitats with mountain lions, coyotes, and wolves. These predators help keep the white tailed deer population from reaching carrying capacity; carrying capacity is a species maximum population size that a habitat can withstand. White-tailed deer are very good runners. They can run at speeds of 30 mile an hour
White tailed deer have influenced my family and I to the extent that my uncle opened a breeding ranch, where I volunteer with some of the duties. Some of activities we do there are breeding them and nurturing abandoned fawns. We have made a special section in the ranch where hunters can come and rent the section to hunt; in these section we release a couple of well-bred bucks that are considered prize winning. In addition to that, we have hunting contest’s where people register and compete to kill the biggest buck. The grand prizewinner takes cash prize and the mount of their buck free. We also dedicate our ranch as a white tailed deer sanctuary, where we take in hurt or pregnant doe. With the money we collect from the entrée fees of the hunting competitions, we take care of the injured fawns and doe. In addition to allowing people to come and admire these graceful animals, because my family and I consider them peaceful, elegant animals, we feel that everyone should have a chance to appreciate them.
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