WHITETAIL DEER - RANGE

Here in Florida our climate is semitropical. In north Florida we typically have light freezes in winter, but Christmas might be in the 30's or in the 80's!
The whitetail's range is limited to North and South America. It extends from Canada, near the Arctic Circle, to Peru and Brazil in South America. The whitetail's range covers more latitude than any other ungulate (hoofed animal) in the world.

Our North American whitetail have been successfully transplanted as exotics to Finland (which proves that they truly are a cold-adapted deer), but have failed when they were introduced everywhere else. That is because they just cannot successfully compete head to head with specialists who are well adapted and on their own turf. While whitetail deer are excellent survivors, they are so generalized that when they are up against specialists they lose out. However, shakeup the environment, whether by fire, earthquake, volcano, avalanche, Ice Age extinctions, urban development or whatever other disaster you can imagine, and the whitetail will out-survive their competitors whose special needs are less likely to be met in a state of natural chaos or, if you prefer, renewal. The whitetail thrive on the tender new shoots that follow the clearing off of a mature habitat.
The blue bar shows the whitetail's range. It goes from latitude 63' north to 18' south.
The whitetail moved into the ranges that were left empty by the large North American animals after they had become extinct during the Ice Ages. Some, but not all, scientists believe that all of the living species of deer in South America branched off in the past from the whitetail.
THE SPECIES
HABITAT
DIET
DIGESTION
SURVIVAL
RANGE
BREEDING


COURTSHIP
ANTLERS
FAWNS
TAME WHITETAIL
MULE DEER AND BLACKTAIL
THEIR FUTURE
ANIMALS


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