The DeerThe deer has been around as long as man can remember.
It has always been inNorth and South America, and not that long ago was brought to Europe. The deer hasbeen hunted for centuries by Stone Age man, American Indians, and now modern dayhunters. The weapons used to hunt deer have changed as time goes on. They werehunted with rocks by Stone Age man, with spears and hand crafted bow and arrows bythe Indians, with guns and still today the bow and arrow by modern day hunters. Thepurpose of my paper is to discuss the types of deer in the world today, what habitat theylive in, their instincts or habits, the over population of the whitetail deer in the UnitedStates, and the large sport of hunting deer.
Their are three major types of deer in the world today. There is the whitetail deer,mule deer, and blacktail deer. The whitetail is the most popular of the three. Thewhitetail deer is broken up into many different species. The northwestern whitetail,Texas whitetail, northeastern whitetail, southeastern whitetail, Coues whitetail, Mexicanwhitetail, and the Key whitetail are all the species in the Americas today. the mule deeris only broken into two different species.
The Rocky Mountain mule deer and the desertmule deer are the two species. The blacktail deer is broken into two species also. Thereis the Sitka blacktail and the Columbia blacktail (Lawrence 60-62). Deer can live and flourish in just about any habitat.
They are the only large animalthat lives every where in North America. Deer live in most of Central America and inmany parts of South America. The whitetail deer inhabits Central America, Mexico, allthe U. S. except Alaska and Hawaii, southern Canada, and South America.
Recentlyhave been brought to Europe, the West Indies, and New Zealand. The mule deer livesin southwestern Canada, twenty two U. S. states, northwestern Coahuila,northern Chihuahua, northern Sonora, Texas, Arizona, northern Mexico, and southernCalifornia. The blacktail deer mainly inhabits the Pacific Coast. It lives betweensouthwestern Alaska and southern California.
In the north the blacktail lives inVancouver, British Colombia, islands of Queen Charlotte, and have been brought to theislands in Prince William Sound. Towards the south the blacktail lives in California andat the turn of the century were brought to Hawaii (Lawrence 60-62). Deer like all animals have instincts or habits. Most deer, no matter where they livehave the same instincts. For example all deer in the northern hemisphere breed inNovember. This breeding period is called the rut.
During the rut the only thing deer arethinking about is breeding. They pay no attention to cars on the road and that is why atthis time more than fifty percent of deer that get hit in a year get hit during the rut. Whilethe rut is going on in November all the bucks are checking out all the doe to see if theymeet their standards. Bucks are also showing of to the does by flaunting his rack andfighting and defeating other bucks to show their superiority (www.
ohiowildlife. com). Mostall bucks are dominate and aggressive animals. There are a few older ones who do nothave any desire to fight.
Instead of fighting they hide all day. Between August andOctober is when deer shed their velvet. During this time bucks hang around with eachother. They spar for fun with each other. they stay friendly with each other till the rut(Ingram 49-51). Just about all deer have the same eating habits.
Deer eat mainlybetween sundown and sunrise. Almost never will you see a deer go and eat in a field inbrood daylight. They eat in the fields at night but never during the day. During the day,when they occasionally theyll eat close and around the fields where they can feel safeand still get good crops. When the sun starts to come up they head back to theirbedding areas.
On their way back to their bedding areas, or whatever movement they doduring the day they follow tree, fence, and creek lines. Deer that live adjacent big farmswith fields get to know farm machines, but split as soon as they see different vehicles. Deer usually sleep during the day and do as much as possible at night when they feelsafer(Murray 44). When it snows deer move around without worry because snow makesthe woods or fields quiet, so its easier to hear things. Even though their hearing getsbetter in snow their smelling gets worse.
They dont lose any ability to smell, the scentsin the woods are covered and not allowed to spread. Deer turn gray in winter to be blendin to there surroundings. They have a tough time walking in deep snow. In awful stormsdeer go under or into thick cover and can and will stay there for days. A big snow stormwill also mess up dear eating habits.
They are forced into eating twigs and buds of smalltrees. In winter, when there is no snow, they normally eat crop remains, acorns, broadleaves, weeds, and grass (Almy 104-107). The overpopulation of deer is becoming a big problem in most of the U. S. today.
Many states are encouraging people to hunt to lower the number of deer in an area. Insome places their are so many that the deer are getting very skinny and sick because oflack of food. In the U. S.
today their is an estimated average of thirteen million deer,compared to the turn of the century when there was only five hundred thousand. Overtwo million are killed each year by hunters and cars. Even though that two million a yearare killed, range and population are going up (Lawrence 60-62). Most states haveopened up state owned property for the use of the public to hunt. There are so manydoe, female deer, in the U. S.
today that most that most of them do not get to breed,because there are not enough bucks. Many towns in the U. S. are trying to get hunters tohunt more doe in hope that it brings down their population.
They are encouraginghunters by lowering tag costs (www. ohiowildlife. com). Deer hunting has become a very large sport in the world today. It is enjoyed bymales and females of all ages.
Hunters use a wide variety of weapons when huntingdeer. The most commonly used are the rifle, shotgun, and bow and arrow. The rifle ismore popular than the shotgun and bow. The bow and arrow were never really useduntil the late seventies, but now has become very popular.
The bow is the safest andquietest weapon used to hunt deer. For example in the state of Ohio, since 1943 there has only been one death from a bow hunting accident. Crossbows are sometimes usedto hunt deer also. In some states, for example Massachusetts, crossbows are outlawed.
The deer that is hunted the most is the whitetail deer. Deer hunting has become such apopular sport that last year in Ohio it contributed two hundred million dollars to Ohioseconomy. The deer hunter is said to spend an average of about four hundred dollars ayear on hunting. That doesnt include cost of a deer hunting licenses and permits. Illegaldeer poaching does happen a lot believe it or not. States are making a big effort to tryand stop it by setting up hotlines for people to call if they witness any illegal poaching(www.
ohiowildlife. com). Deer hunting has become one of Prince William of Englandmost favorite things to do. At 14 he shot his first deer. Prince Harry, Williams youngerbrother, only twelve, is very interested in hunting too.
Even Princes Diana has huntedand shot a deer. She was only thirteen when she shot it and is said to have been boredby hunting (Prince William bags a stag, getting blooded and prompting an outcry 62). What you should have learned in this paper is the types of deer that live in theworld today, what habitat deer live in, their habits, the over population of the whitetaildeer in the United States, and the large sport of hunting deer. I just got into bow huntinglast year, that is why I decided to do the deer for my term paper. I was introduced to bowhunting by my cousins in New Jersey.
I went down there to visit last year and mycousins are the best bow hunters in the state of New Jersey. In the I. B. O tournamentsthe last three years one of them has come in first and the other in second every year. They were so happy that I wanted to start bow hunting they set me up and gave me allthe goods.
They brought me out hunting and in twenty minutes one of them had a doe. Since then I have been buying all the equipment I need and practicing every week. Ithink deer are wonderful animals and I hope to bag one this year. If you are never notsure about getting into the sport, do it, its the best thing I ever did.
Even if you areagainst the killing of deer go out some day and just sit in the woods and watch them theyare gracious animals.Category: Miscellaneous
