Deer are vegetarians who feed on moss, bark, buds, leaves, or water plants. They are usually very timid animals, and they depend on their speed for safety. They generally feed at night. They have very good eyesight, and their senses of hearing and smell are so sharp that they are able to detect danger easily. Deer vary in size from the little pudu, which is only a foot tall, to the great moose, which may weigh more than 450 kilograms.

The chief distinguishing marks of the deer are the antlers. Nearly all the males have antlers, and in the case of the caribou and reindeer, females have them too. The antlers are not hollow, like the horns of cattle, but are made of a honeycomb structure. Each spring, the male deer grows a new pair of antlers, and each winter he loses them after the mating season is over. In some varieties of deer, the antlers are single shafts, in others there may be as many as 11 branches to each antler!

Since the number of branches varies with age, you can tell how old a deer is from its antlers.

The first year, two knoblike projections appear on the deer’s forehead. These are called the “pedicles,” and they are never lost. The antlers break off from the pedicle each spring and new antlers are grown during the summer. The second year, a straight shaft grows out of the pedicle, and in the third year, the first branch appears.

When the antlers are growing, they are covered with a sensitive skin called the “velvet.” This is filled with blood vessels which feed the antlers and build up the bone. When the antlers have reached their full size, after a period of two to four months, the blood supply is cut off from the velvet by the formation of a ring around the base of the antlers. This makes the velvet wither and dry up, and it finally falls off. Usually, the deer help by rubbing their antlers against trees.