VIRGINIA WHITE TAIL DEER

The Virginia white tail deer is the most popular game animal in the commonwealth; and yet, strangely enough, the deer population is greater today than in colonial times. This increase is due to several factors: cut-over woods and grown up fields which constitute a habitat favored by the animal; lack of natural predators like mountain lion, wolves and coyotes; and the polygamous habits of bucks combined with the natural fecundity of the female. It is unusual for a female to drop less than two fawns; sometimes she will bear as many as four.

Adult deer range in color from tawny to gray on their backs and flanks and are white below. A buck deer in the Colonial Triangle area weighing 250 pounds would be considered a large deer. Some of the racks or antlers worn by the male are symmetrical and may be up to thirty inches long. The Virginia white tail is well named because the sixteen-inch appendage shines and flashes like a beacon when the deer jumps and runs for protection.

The food of the deer is largely browse, such as twigs or leaves of young trees, and cultivated crops like corn, rye, or wheat. Some damage is inflicted every year on farmer's crops when an overabundance of the animals is present. They are also somewhat destructive to orchards.

Today on Jamestown Island there is a herd of 125 deer that delight visitors who take the Island drive. In John Smith's day, probably not over twenty existed there.