When William Clark (of the Lewis and Clark expedition) saw abundant elk and “white tale deer” in 1805, he was describing the deer, not naming them, but eventually the description became the common name. White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are native to North America, where humans have probably always hunted them. They were important to native peoples for food, of course, but also for their hides, bones, sinew, antlers, stomach and hooves, which were used for clothing, tools, food storage and more. According to Capt. John Smith, the Powhatan people used “the sinewes of Deere, and the tops of Deeres hornes,” which they “boyled to a jelly,” to make a “glew that will not dissolve in cold water.” Before Europeans arrived, it is estimated that there were 40 million to 80 million white-tailed deer in North America.
When colonists arrived in North America, they realized they could sell deer hides to Europeans for a good sum. In the late 1600s, traders sold 85,000 of the hides per year. By the mid-1700s, this number had increased to 500,000 per year. By the 1800s, railroads had expanded, repeating rifles improved hunting efficiency and hunting dogs became popular. Deer became easy targets throughout North America, and their numbers plummeted.
Deer became scarce in New England much earlier than this. The lawmakers in the Province of Massachusetts Bay in 1693 outlawed deer hunting from Jan. 1 to July 1. The penalty was 40 shillings, and the witness who reported the crime got half. The other half went to help the poor. In 1717, killing deer at any time in Massachusetts Bay was outlawed because “the depth of snow in some late winters hath been so great as hath occasioned the destruction of a great part of the deer in this province.” To enforce game laws, Massachusetts became the first state in the nation to appoint game wardens (called Informers of Deer, or Deer Reeves).
J.A. Allen wrote about white-tailed deer in Massachusetts in 1869, “This beautiful animal is now rare in this State, and will soon, probably, be extinct … They were last seen in the vicinity of Springfield about fifty years ago.” By 1890, the deer population in North America reached its lowest levels ever. Only about 300,000 remained. Most of the nation from the East Coast to the Rockies had no deer.
In the North Atlantic region, a period of cooling (called the Little Ice Age) occurred from the 1600s to 1850. After this time, loggers in far Northern New England began clearing land, which created suitable deer habitat. By the late 1800s, a few deer spread into northern Maine, New Hampshire and southern Canada. This region is north of their original range, but by this time the Little Ice Age was over, making the region more hospitable to deer.
Many states began to outlaw or severely limit deer hunting. Hunters worked to reestablish deer populations. In 1878, a hunting club in Vermont bought 17 captive deer and released them into woods closed to hunting. By 1895, this deer population had grown to several hundred. In 1898, Massachusetts closed the entire state to deer hunting. The few deer in Northern New England spread south gradually. Pockets of deer in the Berkshires and on the Cape expanded their range, too.
But the really big change occurred in 1937. Congress passed a wildlife restoration act that taxed hunting guns and ammunition. The money went toward wildlife restoration projects, and white-tailed deer benefited greatly. Within a short time, deer returned to our woodlands. Today there are 30 million white-tailed deer in the United States, about 150,000 of which are in Massachusetts. Many locations have too many deer for the capacity of the land. To keep the population in check, Massachusetts has several deer-hunting seasons from October to December, including archery season, shotgun season and primitive firearms season. Hunting reduces the Massachusetts deer population by about 10 percent. The parts of the state with the most deer are closed to hunting, though.
Male deer have antlers, while females do not. The antlers are made of bone. In August and September, males set off in search of females and mating (called rutting) occurs in November or December; once the breeding season is over, the bucks shed their antlers.
Females give birth in the spring. The babies (fawns) lie motionless on the ground hidden in leaves or tall grass. Their spotted coat helps camouflage them. The mother returns to the fawns to nurse them, but otherwise stays away. The fawns grow, and by the following spring, they leave their mother but stay nearby. They return to the mother for the fall and winter. The following spring, the young are fully grown and leave their mother permanently to join either male or female groups.
Deer eat large amounts of food, especially leaves, shoots, seeds, grasses, acorns, berries and wildflowers. They even eat foods that are harmful or indigestible to humans, such as mushrooms, poison ivy and woody plants. Most of these plants grow around forest edges in open areas, exposed to predators. Therefore, deer fill their bellies as quickly as they can, chewing just enough to swallow.
Many of the plants they ingest contain cellulose. People cannot digest cellulose molecules, but deer can. Deer have four chambers in their stomachs. The first chamber stores the hastily swallowed food. When the deer is in a safe place, it regurgitates this food and chews it again, forming a paste called cud. The deer swallows the cud, which enters a second chamber. Microorganisms in this chamber ferment and break down the cellulose, producing methane gas. Deer burp to get rid of this gas.
Deer regurgitate the cud from the second chamber and chew it some more! When swallowed this food eventually goes to a third chamber, which removes 65 percent of the water. When the food enters the fourth and final chamber, stomach acids digest the food – like in a human stomach. Stomach acids kill the microorganisms that had been breaking down the cellulose. The deer digest the microorganisms, too! Everything then moves to their 28-feet of intestines, where nutrients are absorbed into the body. Unabsorbed food becomes waste.
Have you taken photos of our urban wild things? Send your images to Cambridge Day and we may use them as part of a future feature. Include the photographer’s name and the general location where the photo was taken.
Jeanine Farley is an educational writer who has lived in the Boston area for more than 30 years. She enjoys taking photos of our urban wild things.
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