I stop and watch the deer in my development whenever I can, even though this is something that happens on an almost daily basis.

After 30 years I still am not tired of catching a glimpse of them as they go about their routine. Some days I am lucky enough to capture a photo or two from my car without disturbing them too much.

White-tailed deer are the smallest members of the North American deer family. They are called white-tailed because of the white underside of the deer’s tail, which it displays and wags when it senses danger and to communicate with other deer.

Adult white-tails have reddish-brown coats in summer which fade to a duller grayish-brown in winter.

Male deer, called bucks, grow a new set of antlers every year toward the end of March into April and they are shed in the winter. These antlers grow at the rate of about a quarter inch per day.

Younger bucks begin growing their antlers a little later and at a slower rate.

During the mating season, also called the rut, bucks will use these antlers to fight with other bucks over territory and females.

During the rutting season, bucks will lose up to 25 percent of their body weight from the constant seeking and chasing of does. Females do not have antlers although one female out of 10,000 grows antlers. A deer’s antlers are a result of three factors: nutritious food, age and good genes.

Does give birth to one to three young at a time, usually in May or June and after a gestation period of seven months. Young deer, called fawns, wear a reddish-brown coat with white spots that help them blend in with the forest to hide from predators. Newborn fawn do not have an odor and the mother consumes waste from the fawn to help keep its presence concealed. All these factors help to camouflage them and prevent predators from finding them.

Fawn are preyed upon by hawks, eagles, foxes, vultures and corvids. A newborn fawn can stand in about 20 minutes, walk in one hour, run a bit after 24 hours and outrun a man in five days.

On average, a deer needs to eat about 8 pounds of vegetation, per 100 pounds of body weight, per day. So, a 150-pound deer needs to eat 12 pounds of food in a 24-hour period over most of the year.

White-tailed deer diet includes a variety of nutrients including plants and leaves, mushrooms and red sumac, which is very poisonous. These deer are the opportunistic feeders, and they also eat some birds to fulfill their nutritional needs.

An adult deer has 32 teeth, but they have no upper teeth. The space is instead filled with a hard-surfaced pad of gristle.

Jeannie Carl is a naturalist at the Carbon County Environmental Education Center in Summit Hill. The center rehabilitates injured animals and educates the public on a variety of wildlife found in the area. For information on the Carbon County Environmental Center, visit www.carboneec.org.