Bois-des-esprits

White-tailed deer

Also known as Virginia deer, white-tailed deer are found across the American continent, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, Peru, and Bolivia. They have a reddish-brown coat in the spring and summer, which becomes grey-brown the rest of the year.

Bucks (males) sport antlers during the warm seasons and weigh between 68 and 140 kg. Does (females), which are lighter, give birth to one to three fawns at a time, usually in May or June. The latter are recognizable to their white spots.

Whitetail deer are fast animals, reaching sprinting speeds of up to 58 km/hour. They are also very agile, with an ability to make 2.5-metre-high and nine-metre-long leaps!

The deer in Bois-des-Esprits are used to human presence. So, they are not very shy and can stand very close to you. My policy is to stay at a safe distance and move slowly, so as to avoid creating problems for myself. I have met people who try to feed them, but it is not a practice I condone.

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