06/15/11 Photos | Petra, Maine Wildlife Photos | Ken Anderson

06/15/11 10:45:00

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:58:53 -0400

This is the last photo in which the deer appears on this day. He apparently walks out of view of the wildlife camera, probably to the left of the screen.

06/15/11 10:44:59

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:58:53 -0400

After posing for a series of photographs, the young whitetail deer is about the leave the camera view.

06/15/11 10:44:58

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:58:53 -0400

As have the bear and the moose before him, this young whitetail deer has been made aware of the wildlife camera, showed alertness and intrigue, finally dismissing it as harmless. The deer remains alert, but deer are pretty much alway alert.

06/15/11 10:44:57

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:58:53 -0400

This is a beautiful photo of a young whitetail deer that has become aware of the wildlife camera, undoubtedly because it makes an audible click each time is naps a photograph. The deer is staring directly into the lens, one ear is to the side, while the other is up, indicating sharp alertness.

06/15/11 10:44:55

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:58:53 -0400

The whitetail deer has become aware of the camera, which makes an audible click while snapping a picture. In this photograph, he is not looking directly at the camera, but beyond and to the side of it. In the next, he will stare directly into it. The camera is a Primos Truth Cam 35 wildlife camera that has been mounted on a tree for several days, and in various parts of the forests of Petra, Maine since before the snow melted this spring. The camera makes an audible click when snapping a photograph, and I have found that evokes curiosity rather than alarm from its subjects.

06/15/11 10:44:39

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:58:53 -0400

Ever vigilant, the young whitetail deer first looked in the direction of the camera, then directly at the camera, then to both sides.

06/15/11 10:44:38

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:58:53 -0400

Newborn whitetail fawns are about four to ten pounds at birth, and grow to about eighty-five pounds in their first six months. They lose their spots during their first summer. Male fawns tend to be larger than females, and tend to leave their mothers after a year, while females generally stay for two years.

06/15/11 10:44:37

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:58:53 -0400

This young deer's spots are just beginning to fade. The habitat of the forests, fields and swamps of Petra, Maine offer ample food and shelter for its deer population.

06/15/11 10:44:35

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:58:53 -0400

There is no doubt that the young whitetail deer has noticed the wildlife camera. The deer appears to be alert and curious, but not particularly frightened.

06/15/11 10:44:33

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:58:53 -0400

For the first time, the young whitetail deer has detected the clicking of the wildlife camera. A Primos Truth Cam 35 camera is mounted to a tree facing into this small clearing. When set to take photographs, the camera will take a series of from three to five photographs in rapid succession, after detecting both movement and body heat. Each time a photo is taken, there is an audible click. My experience has been that wild animals are at first alarmed, then curious of the camera, but in the end they rightly determine that it is not a threat. In these woods, a black bear has attacked it a couple of times, gummed the lens up with its nose another time, and used it as a backscratcher on another occasion, the latter event occuring at this same camera location. Moose have also gotten close and personal with the camera.

06/15/11 10:44:14

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:58:53 -0400

White-tailed deer communicate using a variety of sounds, which range from explosive "whooshes" when startled to the barely audible grunts that a doe uses when communicating with her fawns. Deer also use facial expressions and body language for communication, as well as odors that are produced by a number of scent glands between the toes, shins, hock, forehead, nose, and near each of its eyes.

06/15/11 10:44:13

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:58:53 -0400

Notice how, although the deer is standing in the middle of a clearing, he can barely be seen among the high ferns and saplings.

06/15/11 10:44:12

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:58:53 -0400

The Maine whitetailed deer has sharp hearing, permitted by its large ears, which can rotate toward suspicious sounds. Their eyes are wide-set, allowing them to focus on subtle movements and allowing for good depth perception. An excellent sense of smell allows them to sense danger even before it can be seen. In addition, their long legs allow them to move quickly by leaping, bounding, turning, and running at speeds up to forty miles an hour.

06/15/11 10:44:11

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:58:53 -0400

Summer home ranges for the Maine whitetail deer may be as large as five hundred to six hundred acres, but may be as small as one hundred acres or as large as two thousand acres, depending on available resources. Moving from their summer to winter range, a deer will travel from two to twenty-five miles, depending on availability and the suitability of the winter range.

The one hundred acres of Petra, Maine includes every type of habitat required of a whitetail deer, including a wintering area comprised of dense, mature cedar, offering protection from heavy snows and cold winds.

06/15/11 10:44:09

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:58:53 -0400

During the course of a year, a whitetail deer might consume several hundred species of plants, some preferable to others. This young deer has been eating ferns and saplings, as well as some apples and corn that I had put down here a few days ago.

06/15/11 10:43:47

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:58:53 -0400

Whitetail deer are selective herbivores, focusing on whichever plants are currently the more nutritious. Deer are rather finicky eaters, opting for variety over quantity. Deer eat grasses, ferns, lichens, mushrooms, weeds, aquatic plants, leaves, fruits, grains, nuts, and the twigs and buds of woody plants and saplings.

This young whitetail deer is difficult to see, as it is mostly obscured by the high ferns and saplings, but it is eating these same ferns and saplings, along with some corn and apples that I had left on the ground here a few days ago.

06/15/11 10:43:46

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:58:53 -0400

Whitetailed deer can live to eighteen years, but very few of them survive that long. Does generally live longer than bucks, as bucks suffer greater losses from hunting, motor vehicle collisions, physical injuries and depletion of fat reserves leading into winter, the differences having something to do with the rutting behaviors of bucks.

This young deer can barely be seen amidst the long ferns and saplings in this clearing in the forests of Petra, Maine.

06/15/11 10:43:45

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:58:53 -0400

When Maine was first colonized by Europeans, the Maine whitetail deer were found only in the mid and south coastal regions of the state, while moose and caribou occupied the interior forests. By the late 1800s, the caribou had moved across the river into Canada, and deer had moved throughout the state of Maine. Today, ninety-four percent of Maine is considered whitetail deer habitat, although moose are perhaps more prominent than deer is the northern part of the state, which includes Petra, in Aroostook County, Maine.

06/15/11 10:43:44

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:58:53 -0400

Thirty years ago, the one hundred acres of Petra, Maine were mostly agricultural, and primarily potato fields, except for the cedar swamp and the wet area around the brook. About six acres of Petra's potato fields are currently in production, while the remainder of the land has reverted to a new growth mixed forest. While we seem to have more moose and bear than we do deer, Petra is an ideal habitat for Maine whitetail deer, which prefer forest lands, wetlands, reverting farmlands, and active farmlands, considering that Petra has all of that. Our dense cedar swamp can provide shelter in winter, as it includes dry ground with a thick canopy of mature cedar trees, with small pockets of cleared areas within.

06/15/11 10:43:42

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:58:53 -0400

Each year, deer produce two coats of hair, each adapted to a particular climate. In the late spring, whitetail deer grow a coat of short, fine, reddish hair, which permits adequate air circulation for summer temperatures. In the fall, the whitetail molts to a more insulative coat, comprised of dense layers of wooly hair under a layer of long, hollow guard hairs, which can be erected to form a thick, insulated coat that will protect against winter temperatures in Maine.