White-tailed deer is the state Animal of Illinois, which scientifically known as Odocoileus virginianus. It is native to the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has also been introduced to New Zealand, Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Bahamas, Lesser Antilles, and some countries in Europe. The Illinois’s state animal White-tailed Deer has belonged separate name for both male and female.
The male deer called bucks and females are does or Doze. The color of white-tailed deer is grayish brown in winter, which turns to tan or reddish brown in summer. Although some parts of the body are white like as belly, throat, under the tail, insides of the legs, inside the ears, around the nose and eyes. The male white-tailed deer has antlers.The Illinois’s state animal White-tailed deer being eat a wide variety of plant food.
Tender shoots, leaves, and twigs of shrubs and trees are looking through them. Many of the common agricultural and garden crops are also eaten by them.White-tailed deer became the state Animal of Illinois in 1982, which has been selected by a vote of Illinois schoolchildren in 1980.
State Animal of Illinois Facts–
- Common name: Common deer; white-tailed deer; sand-hill deer; whitetail deer; Virginia deer; Virginia white-tailed deer; Columbian white-tailed deer; Key deer; Coues deer; Texas white-tailed deer; jumping deer; flag-tailed deer; banner-tail; long-tailed deer;
- Scientific name: Odocoileus virginianus.
- Habitat: White-tailed Deer habitat includes roadways, fields, pastures, and woodland clearings. Open areas are used only when thick shrubs or forest are nearby.Also the areas along streams and rivers, mixed woodlands, farms, forests, and burned shrub fields.
- Diet: acorns, grasses, leaves, crops like soybeans and corn, berries, twigs, fungi, fruit, nuts, legumes, bark, and clover.
- Weight: 68 to 141 kg (male) and 41 to 96 kg (female)
- Average height: 68 to 114 cm
- Average lifespan: In internment 6 to 14 years
- Breeding season: Breeding occurs from October to December, fawns are born in the spring.
The White-tailed deer, Illinois’s State Animal is one of the most distinctive Animals in the United States, which symbolized tenderness tempered with strength, peace, energy, fertility and prosperity. It outstandingly represents and glorifies the spirit of Illinois State.
Reference:
http://www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/symbols/animal.html
http://www.nhptv.org/natureworks/whitetaileddeer.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbian_white-tailed_deer
http://www.ereferencedesk.com/resources/state-mammal/illinois-animal.html