This week’s highlighted visitor: The White-Tailed Deer!

A mammal you can spot in woodlands, fields, and even in your neighborhood.  White-tailed deer are graceful creatures with a distinctive white underside to their tails, which they flick when alarmed. These quiet, nimble animals move through the underbrush in slow, deliberate steps, pausing to nibble on grass, shrubs, or tree bark. Their sharp, cautious eyes and ears are always alert, and their soft, distant calls can sometimes be heard in the twilight, signaling their presence before they vanish into the woods.

Due to the loss of natural predators combined with a loss of habitat, the deer density in New Jersey is unsustainably high. This is why deer venture into backyards in search of garden beds and cross busy highways. Estimates of deer populations indicate they are as high as they were pre-colonization, having recovered from near extirpation (local extinction) in the 1900s, making them one of New Jersey’s earliest conservation success stories!

 

While you're here:

Consider signing up for the In the Cattails newsletter, keeping you abreast of goings on at your neighborhood nature conservancy along with other global news of environmental and climate trends.