CLASSROOM PROJECTS
STATE ANIMAL EXPEDITION
State Animals of the United States
Ohio's  Mammal - The White-Tailed Deer
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family of deer
OHIO'S STATE ANIMAL -  THE WHITE-TAILED DEER
    In February of 1988, Governor Richard F. Celeste signed House Bill 312 making the white-tailed deer Ohio’s state animal. The bill was introduced by State Representative E.J. Thomas at the request of Cheryl Phillips’ fourth grade students from Worthington Estates Elementary School. Among a number of reasons given supporting the white- tailed deer, the students said the term “buck” used for male deer would fit in with another state symbol, the buckeye tree, and Ohio’s nickname, “the Buckeye State.” . The white-tailed deer is the largest game animal in Ohio and  can be found in all of Ohio's 88 counties, although about 80 percent of the herd lives in hilly eastern Ohio.
     Here is the section of the Ohio Revised Code declaring the state animal:
5.032 State animal - The animal, Odocoileus virginianus, commonly known as the white-tailed deer, is the official animal of the state. Naming the white-tailed deer as the official animal of the state does not relieve the division of wildlife of its duty to manage the deer population and its distribution. (1988 H 312, eff. 5-11-88)

comparing size of man to deer
     White-tailed deer measure about 3 to 3½ feet tall at the shoulder and the largest bucks (male deer) can weigh 400 lbs. The White-Tailed Deer is a long-legged, fast-moving mammal. When it's startled, it raises its tail like a flag, which is white on the underside.Whitetail deer are nervous and shy. They wave their tails characteristically from side to side when they are startled and fleeing. They  may bound at speeds of up to 30 miles per hour through  a forest. Whitetail deer are also good swimmers and often enter large streams and lakes to escape predators or insects or to visit islands. Their home ranges are generally small, often a square kilometer or less. Whitetail deer do not migrate to a winter range but yard up in their own territories during heavy snow.
 buck does
     Only the bucks have antlers, which are branched and shed each year, then re-grow. A female deer is a doe and they usually travel in small herds with their young. Fawns are usually born in May or June. Whitetail does are painstakingly careful to keep their offspring hidden from predators. When foraging, females leave their offspring in dense vegetation for about four hours at a time. While waiting for the female to return, fawns lay flat on the ground with their necks outstretched, well camouflaged against the forest floor. Fawns withhold their feces and urine until the mother arrives, at which point she eats whatever the fawn voids to deny predators any sign of the fawn.
fawn
     Whitetail deer are not especially vocal, although young fawns bleat on occasion. Injured deer utter a startlingly loud "blatt" or bawl. Whistles or snorts of disturbed whitetails are the most commonly heard sounds.
    The genus and species of the White-Tailed Deer are Odocoileus virginianus. This deer is found over most of North and Central America and northern parts of South America. It lives in deciduous forests, conifer forests, rainforests, grasslands, farm land, marshes, and even deserts.White-Tailed Deer are  herbivores (plant-eaters) who spend most of the day eating leaves, grass, bark, acorns, and buds and twigs of maple, sassafras, poplar, aspen and birch (to name a few), as well as many shrubs.  Conifers are often utilized in winter when other foods are scarce. Whitetail deer are crepuscular, feeding mainly from before dawn until several hours after, and again from late afternoon until dusk.  Their life span in the wild is 10 years, but whitetail deer have lived up to 20 years in captivity.
     
Other states that has named the White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) as their official state mammal and/or animal: Arkansas; Illinois; Michigan; Mississippi; Nebraska; New Hampshire; Ohio; Oklahoma; Pennsylvania; South Carolina; Wisconsin
     Common names are white-tailed deer; whitetail deer; Columbian white-tailed deer; Key deer; Coues deer; Texas white-tailed deer; sandhill deer; common deer; jumping deer; flag-tailed deer; bannertail; long-tailed deer; Virginia white-tailed deer; Virginia deer

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