Fascinating Facts about Deer for Kids

Deer are very beautiful creatures, and many kids have heard about them in children’s stories. These deer facts for kids will help them know more about these species and help them understand how deer live.

Interesting Information about Deer for Children

Check out facts about deer information for kids below:

1. Though deer adapt very well to a lot of different habitats, they still prefer to live in areas often called the ‘edge’ locations. These locations are usually wooded areas with enough food and grazing. A group of deer living in a location is called a herd.
2. The male deer are called bucks while the females are called does. The male deer grow antlers which fall off during the winters. Many deer species are hunted for their antlers. The females do not have antlers.
3. The baby deer is called a ‘fawn’. They are born with a spotted colouring on their skin, which allows them to be camouflaged when in the grass. Within a year after their birth, they usually lose the spotted colouring. Within thirty minutes after they are born, the fawn takes its first steps.
4. The deer usually weigh from 30-300 kg based on their species. Northern Pusu is the smallest type of deer, and the average weight of this species is 10 kg. Moose is the largest deer, and it weighs around 431 kg.
5. The physical spots, stripes, and markings are completely dependent on the type of deer species. Most of the deer species are brown in colour, and some of them have marks on their body.
6. Deer are good swimmers. They also have great hearing and an amazing sense of smell. They do not have great eyesight, and some are even believed to be colour blind. They see the world in a very low resolution.
7. Antelopes are animals that look a lot like a deer, but they have horns instead of antlers. These horns are permanent and will not grow back every year like the antlers. But the antlers grow into many extensions known as ‘points’. These antlers are used by the males to fight and get attention from the females.
8. Deer are extensively distributed in every continent except Antarctica and Australia. Africa hosts only one species of deer which is the Red Deer, and it lives on the Atlas Mountains.
9. A few deer species have meat in their diet although all deer species are herbivorous. Many deer species are picky feeders, and they are known to be absolute browsers. They largely graze on grasses for a few hours.
10. If there is no danger, then they spend hours on the grasses. They have specialised teeth that makes them good at feeding on fresh grasses, leaves, fruit, fungi, and lichens.
11. Every species of deer is different in its own way. For example, the white-tailed deer has a sequence of tines from a forward-curving core beam developing upwards. This whitetail deer can even jump a distance of 15 feet. This is one of the most interesting white-tailed deer facts for kids.
12. The largest deer population in Asia are found in the Northern and Southern India’s Gangetic Plain Regions and Nepal’s Regions. These types of fertile plains consist of moist forests and dry deciduous forests that are home to the Indian sambar, hog deer, chital, Indian muntjac, and barasingha. This is a very interesting deer habitat fact.
13. Certain species are restricted to grasslands, wet savannas, mountains, swamps, and riparian corridors. These mammals are experts in these types of areas.
14. They do not build nests or dens. They find a comfortable and safe place to rest, mostly under low hanging branches of trees. They mostly stay close to places where food is easily available.
15. They do not store food for winters. They use their hooves to uncover leaves and moss when the snow is not deep. When it is deep, they eat branches and twigs.

During the summers, they live in fields or woodlands, and in winters they move to the forest to protect themselves from the cold. If people destroy forests to build houses, then deer will have nowhere to go. They will start coming into the parks or even your backyards.

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