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deerThe white-tailed deer that live in woodlands throughout the United States and in Central America and N South America was a source of food, buckskin, and other necessities for Native Americans and white settlers. Deer flesh, called venison, is still considered a delicacy. Slaughter through the years nearly exterminated the whitetail, but it is now restored in large numbers in the E United States and to a lesser extent in the West. In summer its upper parts are reddish brown, in winter grayish. The mule deer exists in reduced numbers from the Plains region westward, and the closely related black-tailed deer is a Pacific coast form.
Old World deer include the red deer, closely related to the North American wapiti, the fallow deer, and the axis deer. The only deer in Africa are small numbers of red deer found in the north in a forested area. The barking deer, or muntjac, is a small deer of S Asia. A muntjac discovered in N Myanmar (formerly Burma) in 1997 is believed to be the smallest deer in the world. Called the leaf deer, Muntiacus putaoensis, it stands about 20 in. (45 cm) at the shoulder. The misleadingly named mouse deer, or chevrotain, is not a deer, but belongs to a related family (Tragulidae). Many species of deer are threatened with extinction. Deer are classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Mammalia, order Artiodactyla, family Cervidae.
See also caribou; elk; moose; Père David's deer; reindeer.
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- roe deer
Roe deer, small, short-horned deer, Capreolus capreolus, of Britain and Europe and as far east as China and Siberia. Its coat is golden red in summer, darkening to brown or even black in winte...
- Brown Deer
Brown Deer, village (1990 pop. 12,236), Milwaukee co., SE Wis., on the Milwaukee River; inc. 1955. It is a residential suburb N of Milwaukee; consumer goods and machinery are manufactured.
- Deere, John
Deere, John, 1804–86, American industrialist, manufacturer of agricultural implements, b. Rutland, Vt. He was one of the pioneers of the steel plow industry. A blacksmith by trade, he establis...
- musk deer
Musk deer, small, antlerless deer, Moschus moschiferus, found in wet mountain forests from Siberia and Korea to the Himalayas. In summer it ranges up to 8,000 ft (2,400 m). It is from 20 to 24...
- Deer Park
Deer Park. 1 Uninc. village (1990 pop. 28,840), Babylon town, Suffolk co., SE N.Y., a primarily residential suburb on Long Island. 2 City (1990 pop. 27,652), Harris co., SE Tex., a growing ind...
- Père David's deer
Père David's deer, Asian deer, Elaphurus davidianus, known only in a semidomesticated state. It has a bulky, donkeylike body, reaching a shoulder height of nearly 4 ft (120 cm), with a tufted ...
- Red Deer, city, Canada
Red Deer, city (1991 pop. 58,134), S central Alta., Canada, on the Red Deer River. It developed as a trade and service center for a region of dairying and mixed farming. The discovery of oil a...
- Red Deer, river, Canada
Red Deer, river, 385 mi (620 km) long, rising in the Rocky Mts. in Banff National Park, SW Alta., Canada, and flowing NE past Red Deer city, then SE and E across the plains to the South Saskat...
- reindeer
Reindeer, ruminant mammal, genus Rangifer, of the deer family, found in arctic and subarctic regions of Eurasia and North America. It is the only deer in which both sexes have antlers. The Eur...
- caribou, in zoology
Caribou, name in North America for the genus (Rangifer) of deer from which the Old World reindeer was originally domesticated. Caribou are found in arctic and subarctic regions. They are the o...
