06/20/11 Photos | Petra, Maine Wildlife Photos | Ken Anderson

06/20/11 18:58:35

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 03:13:53 -0400

This is the last photograph we have of this white-tailed deer, at least for today. In this photograph, you can just see the animal as it is reaching down to eat whatever it is that it's eating, while it is mostly hidden by the tall ferns and saplings.

06/20/11 18:58:34

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 03:13:53 -0400

A white-tailed deer's diet depends on what is available to the animal. Deer are herbivores, eating such things as leaves, twigs, shrubs, fruit, nuts, and other vegetation. Unlike black bear, deer are not on a constant search for food, generally eating about three times a day.

06/20/11 18:58:33

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 03:13:53 -0400

In the absence of predators, two whitetail deer could produce thirty-five animals in seven years.

06/20/11 18:58:32

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 03:13:53 -0400

Once a white-tailed deer has established a home territory, the animal will generally refuse to leave it, and their range is often no more than one square mile in area. Deer have been known to live eleven years or more in the wild.

This particular deer is not far from the camera, not even all of the way to the other side of this very small clearing. Yet, with its head down as it is, probably eating ferns or other vegetation, it would be difficult to see.

06/20/11 18:58:30

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 03:13:53 -0400

Whitetail deer are among the most alert of the forest creatures. When detected and threatened, they use speed and agility to outrun predators. A whitetail deer is able to reach speeds in excess of thirty miles per hour, and to leap as high as ten feet, and as far as thirty feet in a single bound.

06/20/11 18:53:58

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 03:13:53 -0400

In the heat of summer, white-tailed deer generally inhabit fields, meadows and clearings, using broad-leafed and coniferous forests for shade. In the winter, they usually turn to the forests for shelter from the cold.

06/20/11 18:53:57

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 03:13:53 -0400

The white-tailed deer's home range is usually less than a square mile, so this deer probably lives in the forests and fields of Petra, Maine. They are found in southern Canada and most of the United States to varying degrees, except for the Southwest, Alaska and Hawaii. Sorry, Texas, but they make them bigger in Maine.

06/20/11 18:53:56

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 03:13:53 -0400

The white-tailed deer is tan or brown in the summer, and grayish brown in the winter. Its fur includes white on its throat and around its eyes and nose, as well as on its stomach and underside of its tail, from which it derives its name.

06/20/11 18:53:54

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 03:13:53 -0400

The white-tailed deer is a ruminant, which means that it has a four-chambered stomach, each with specific functions that permit the deer to eat a variety of different foods while digesting it later. The deer's stomach depends on a complex set of bacteria that changes by season, as different foods become available.

06/20/11 18:53:53

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 03:13:53 -0400

White-tailed deer are generalists, able to adapt to varying habitats. The temperate zones of Canada and the United States have the largest deer, while the Florida Keys has the smallest of the species. Usually considered to be forest animals that depend on small openings and clearings, such as this, white-tailed deer can adapt to more open prairie and sage communities.

06/20/11 18:53:26

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 03:13:53 -0400

A young whitetail deer in Maine's northernmost county of Aroostook feeds on ferns, saplings and other plants in a small clearing in the woods of Petra, Maine.

06/20/11 18:53:25

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 03:13:53 -0400

A Maine white-tailed deer feeds among ferns, saplings and other plants in this small clearing in the woods of Petra, Maine. Petra is a one hundred-acre plot of northern Maine land that includes potato fields, a brook, cedar swamp, and new-growth forest. Petra, which can't be found on a map, is in the St. John Valley of Aroostook County, Maine.

06/20/11 18:53:23

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 03:13:53 -0400

The young Maine white-tailed deer continues feeding in the small clearing in the woods of Petra, Maine. The photograph was taken by a Primos Truth Cam 35 wildlife camera that has been mounted to a tree facing this clearing for the past several days. In this same clearing we have seen a couple of moose and a Maine black bear.

06/20/11 18:53:22

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 03:13:53 -0400

You will have noticed that there are usually five photos in a row in which the subject of the wildlife camera, in this case a young whitetailed deer, has moved very little. This is because the Primos Truth Cam 32 will take a series of from three to five photos in rapid succession, depending on the setting chosen. I generally set it to take five photos.

06/20/11 18:53:21

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 03:13:53 -0400

The whitetail deer continues to feed on ferns, sapling leaves, or perhaps apples, in this small clearing in the forests of Petra, Maine.

06/20/11 18:52:57

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 03:13:53 -0400

If I were coming into this clearing from the road, I would be walking toward the camera view from the tree line in the background of the photo. It is likely that I wouldn't even see this young whitetail deer, as she stands lower than the height of the ferns and saplings. In reality, I probably would though, as she would run and I'd see her as she ran.

06/20/11 18:52:56

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 03:13:53 -0400

Satisfied for the moment, the young white-tailed deer goes back to eating. She may be eating ferns, sapling leaves, of perhaps she has found some apples on the ground, as I may have left some there the previous day when I retrieved the disk from the wildlife camera. The camera is a Primos Truth Cam 35, which has been mounted to a tree at the edge of this small clearing in the woods of Petra, Maine for the past several days.

06/20/11 18:52:55

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 03:13:53 -0400

The deer must have heard something in the woods. The direction she is looking is toward a trail that leads some distance through the woods, past my compost pile and the other common camera location that seems to be a favorite of the Maine black bear that we see here often. If it were a car, ATV or other human interference that she was aware of, the noise would be coming from her right, in the direction that the camera is facing.

06/20/11 18:52:54

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 03:13:53 -0400

Deer are among the most alert creatures in the forest. They seem always to have all of their senses engaged. One might think that Petra would be a relatively safe environment for deer. We don't allow hunting, and it's not hunting season anyhow. The place has only one road and it's more of an ATV and snowmobile trail than a road, and it's quite a ways from this clearing. There are bears in the area, as we had one on camera here just yesterday. A deer could outrun a bear though, and bears don't generally go after such large prey. Still, I suppose it pays be alert; if the young whitetail strays into hunting area a few months from now, alertness might pay off.

06/20/11 18:52:53

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 03:13:53 -0400

Since we last saw this young Maine whitetailed deer, I have been here to retrieve the disk from the camera, setting it from video back to camera mode. I don't recall now, but I may have spread another bag of apples onto the ground seeing as the deer had eaten the others that I had left there earlier. Whether it is looking for apples or eating the ferns and leaves of saplings in the clearing, I can't tell from this photograph. I'm guessing that she's looking for apples since she wouldn't have to look very hard to find ferns or saplings.