Fetal Development of the Northern White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus borealis Miller)

The white-tailed deer is the most important big game mammal in point of numbers in the United States. Jackson (1944: 7) has given an inventory showing a total population for the species (disregarding subspecies) in the United States portion of its range of over 3,800,000 individuals. He listed a deer population in 44 of the 48 states. Thirty-eight had over 5,000, with state populations ranging up to 604,625 for Wisconsin, 734,000 for Minnesota, and 750,000 for Pennsylvania. Such an abundant, wide-ranging, and economically important big-game species is deserving of more biological study than it has received.