The whitetail deer ranges throughout North America, in Northern South America and Southern Canada. The male or buck can grow to 400 pounds while the smaller female or doe can grow to 250 pounds. The male grows antlers each fall, sheds them and re-grows the antlers the following year. The antlers vary in size, shape and the numbers of points that protrude out from the base.

Females will deliver from 1 to 3 fawns with twins being the norm. The whitetail deer gets its name from their large white tail and can be found throughout the state of Georgia. They feed on a number of foods like acorns, fruits, shrubs and grass. They also love gardens and flowers and at times can become a pest for homeowners. They tend to be found almost anywhere but prefer forest and swamps.

The whitetail deer has been around for quite sometime and fossil records indicate their presence for almost 2.5 million years. When the pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock, the whitetail population was estimated at more than 24 million. The settlers quickly dropped their number because the food was considered a delicacy and by the middle of the 1800’s their population had declined to about 12 million.

During a period in the late 1800’s, their numbers were further depleted and nationwide only about 500,000 deer remained in the United States. The entire population of deer was almost completely wiped out in Georgia.

Due to restocking and sound management practices, the whitetail deer now number around one million in Georgia. However, this success story for the deer has created other problems and at times in the recent past, the deer have even become over populated.

The best and just about only way to control their numbers is through hunting. Although hunting is opposed by some of the population, it is viewed as the best way to control their population. Also hunting provides recreation and food for many families and individuals.

The whitetail deer knows no fences and is just as satisfied these days munching on a homeowner’s flower and vegetable garden as they are eating acorns and wild plants. They have become comfortable living in suburban areas and in many cases they have lost wild instincts and will be seen at almost any place and at anytime of the day.

However, those instincts do seem to change when the annual hunting season begins and hunters begin descending on the woods. The deer seem to know the difference between safe places from unsafe places. In unsafe places, the whitetail deer becomes illusive and uses its natural defenses to thwart any attempt to be harvested. The whitetail deer possess fair eyesight but has excellent senses of hearing and smell. Successful deer hunters have to be still, quite and must absolutely avoid any scents that would alert the deer to their presence.

Many times I have hunted unsuccessfully all day, only to see several deer along the road on my return trip home by automobile. A few years ago, I was packing my automobile for a planned early morning hunt and took a walk to the mailbox in the early morning darkness to retrieve the newspaper. I was met by two of the largest bucks I have ever seen, standing not ten feet from my mailbox. That day I hunted all morning at my hunting lease and saw nothing. Don’t try to convince me that deer are not intelligent.

Some of the largest deer harvested in Georgia in recent years came from counties adjacent to Atlanta that have only recently begun to allow some form of hunting. That hunting is usually restricted to bow hunting. Hugh deer had migrated to the safety of the suburbs of Atlanta and away from the open woods where hunters converged in four-wheelers and four-wheel drive vehicles by the hundreds.

By its nature whitetail deer are illusive and their movements are dictated by several things in their environment. That includes the presence of human activity, weather, moon phases and the mating season when they seem to loose their ability to be illusive. At that time, the urge to breed overtakes their built in cautiousness and during that period that is often referred to as the rut, many deer fall victim to the hunter and are harvested.

Reports from deer coolers and processing sites indicate that the current season is off to a good start and that the deer being harvested are healthy. A number of large bucks have already been harvested in the local area and the rut/breeding period (when many large bucks are harvested) is still 2-3 weeks away depending on the weather and other conditions.

I hope your hunting season for the illusive whitetail deer has already been successful and that your success will continue throughout the remainder of the season. See you next week.



—Outdoor columnist Bobby Peoples can be reached via e-mail at brpeoples@alltel.net.