Deer and kangaroos could hardly be more distantly related — one is a placental mammal of the deer family Cervidae, the other a marsupial that raises its young in a pouch — yet they fill strikingly similar roles on opposite
Mostly no — deer generally avoid succulents, but “generally” is doing real work in that sentence. Waxy coatings, bitter or astringent sap, and odd textures keep most succulents low on the deer menu, and many gardens never see a nibble.
Deer are herbivores, and plants make up essentially all of their diet, but the surprising truth is that deer do occasionally eat meat. Deer have been documented eating bird eggs, nestlings and fledglings, fish, carrion, and even, in a few
Deer protect their fawns mainly by hiding them rather than guarding them. A doe conceals her newborn in dense cover, stays away most of the day so her own scent and bulk do not betray the spot, moves the fawn
Yes — deer eat blueberries, and not just the fruit. Deer browse blueberry bushes in every season: dormant buds and twigs in winter, tender new shoots and leaves in spring, and ripe berries by the mouthful in summer. In much
Deer and goats are not close relatives, even though both are hoofed, cud-chewing browsers of similar size. Deer belong to the family Cervidae and grow branched antlers of solid bone that are shed and regrown every year; goats belong to
Caribou are not endangered as a species, but their overall picture is genuinely worrying. The IUCN lists Rangifer tarandus — the single species that includes both caribou and reindeer — as Vulnerable, reflecting substantial declines across much of its global
Yes — deer eat lilies, and both true lilies and daylilies rank among their absolute favorite garden plants. Daylilies are rated “frequently severely damaged” — the worst tier on university resistance lists — and Asiatic, Oriental, and other true lilies
The main predators of fawns in North America are coyotes, black bears, and bobcats, joined regionally by wolves, mountain lions, and, less often, golden eagles, alligators, and free-running domestic dogs. A newborn fawn is small, slow, and protein-rich, which makes
Deer appear able to recognize individual humans, at least in a practical sense. Deer are observant, quick-learning animals with good memories, and plenty of real-world experience suggests they learn to distinguish a familiar, harmless person from a stranger, largely by
A moose is taller than almost any horse. A mature bull moose stands roughly 5.5 to 6.9 feet at the shoulder — the biggest Alaskan bulls approach seven feet — while an average riding horse stands about 4.8 to 5.4
Yes — deer eat sweet potato vine, and they eat it like candy. The ornamental sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is one of the most vulnerable plants you can put in a container or bed: its big, tender, moisture-rich leaves are
No. Male deer play no part in raising fawns. A buck’s involvement ends at mating: he does not help choose a birth site, does not defend or feed the fawns, and in most cases never associates with them as their
The elk rut, the annual breeding season, runs from roughly mid-September through mid-October across most of North America, with peak activity typically in the last two weeks of September. That’s when bulls bugle most intensely, gather harems of cows, and
Axis deer and fallow deer are the two spotted deer people confuse most — especially on Texas ranches, where both run free — but the antlers give an instant answer: axis bucks grow tall, sweeping, lyre-shaped antlers with just three
No, deer do not mate for life. Deer are polygamous animals: a successful buck breeds with multiple does each season, forms no lasting pair bond with any of them, and plays no role in raising the fawns he sires. A
A fawn’s main sound is a bleat: a soft, high-pitched “maa” or “mew” that sounds a lot like a lamb or a goat kid. Fawns bleat to call their mother, whine softly while nursing, and, when frightened or grabbed, let
Moose live across the cold northern forests of the Northern Hemisphere — a circumpolar range that spans Canada, Alaska, the northern United States, Scandinavia, the Baltic states, Russia, and fringes of northern Mongolia and China. Wherever they occur, moose stick
Fallow deer and sika deer are both medium-sized, often-spotted deer that share woodland across Britain and Europe, but two marks separate them instantly. First, the antlers: fallow bucks grow broad, flattened palmate antlers, while sika stags grow narrow, upright antlers
Yes — deer eat clematis, and they can do serious damage to it. Despite mildly toxic sap that gives the vine a sharp taste, clematis rates “occasionally severely damaged” on university deer-resistance lists. Deer target the soft new shoots in
Bull elk typically shed their antlers in March and April, later than most other North American deer. The biggest, most mature bulls usually drop first, often in early to mid-March, while younger bulls may carry their antlers into late April
Deer hide their fawns in patches of dense, low cover: tall grass, weedy field edges, brushy fencerows, hayfields, thickets, and, quite often, suburban flowerbeds, gardens, and the strip of tall plants beside a porch or shed. A doe is not
Red deer are much larger than fallow deer, and their antlers settle any doubt: a red stag grows tall, branched antlers of round beams and pointed tines, while a fallow buck grows broad, flattened, palm-shaped antlers found on no other
Yes — deer eat rhododendrons, particularly in winter, even though the leaves are toxic to ruminants in large amounts. Rhododendrons aren’t a first-choice food, but their big evergreen leaves are one of the few green meals standing in January, and