Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
to natural history. Such appears to have been the case with the scientific name he attached to the white-
tailed deer.
The species name,
virginianus,
conferred by Rafinesque because the tooth was found in Virginia,
also seems unduly provincial for a creature as far-ranging as the whitetail. However, it at least has the
virtue of locating the approximate center, from north to south, of the animal's range in North America,
although subspecies of the whitetail range down through Central America to areas below the equator
in South America. If any proof were needed of the whitetail's phenomenal adaptability, this enormous
distribution is it!
Unlike many other North American mammals, which originated in Asia or South America and later
migrated here, white-tailed deer evidently evolved on this continent roughly 4 million years ago. Their
ultimate forebears, primitive hoofed mammals, or ungulates, which deer indisputably are, date back to
the Paleocene Epoch, 65 million to 55 million years ago. This was just after (in terms of the unimagin-
ably long ticks of the geologic clock) the extinction of the dinosaurs, so our modern deer have indeed
had a lengthy evolutionary journey!
The numbers of deer living in America during pre-Columbian times is a matter of considerable de-
bate. Some estimates, based on the accounts of early explorers and settlers, run as high as 50 million.
Others believe that these early accounts were exaggerated or misinterpreted, and that we now have
more deer than were present before the arrival of European settlers.
Certainly the present mix of habitat—forest, brush, and fields—seems more conducive to high deer
populations than the forests primeval. But those who support the high estimates believe that the enorm-
ous quantity of mast-bearing trees—oaks, chestnuts, and beeches—provided a rich enough source of
autumn food to compensate for the relative lack of browse in these virgin forests.
We'll never know for certain how many deer were here in pre-Columbian days; it's perhaps enough
to know that they were very abundant. What we do know, however, is that this bountiful resource was
nearly squandered because of such things as ignorance, carelessness, and greed, and that whitetails have
now rebounded to an estimated 25 million to 27 million animals.
The two most important reasons for the whitetail's precipitous decline were habitat loss and unreg-
ulated hunting. As the forests were systematically leveled for pastures, cropland, timber, and firewood,
good deer habitat became both scarce and fragmented in many parts of North America. My own state
of Vermont, for instance, was 70 percent cleared just prior to the Civil War.
Deer were highly valued for their excellent meat, as well as for their hides and tallow. Unfortunately,
there were no notions of modern game management principles at that time: there were no bag limits,
and deer could be hunted year-round by virtually any method. Some insight into this state of affairs was
given by the nineteenth-century Vermont author Rowland Robinson.
A Quaker whose home was an important station on the Underground Railroad, Robinson was also
a gifted writer and painter, as well as an avid hunter and early conservationist. In one of his novels,
the principal character inveighs against the practice of “crustin'.” This method of hunting consisted of
