Alaska is huge. It’s nearly 2.5 times the size of Texas, and if you overlay it on the contiguous United States, it would span from Georgia to California and cover 20% of the country. The state also hosts many giant residents. There are the iconic Kodiak brown bear and 900-pound muskoxen. There are dense thickets of devil’s club with leaves nearly large enough to wrap completely around your torso — but do refrain to avoid its painful thorns — and fin whales, the second largest animal in the world, feeding in the oceans off the coast.
In the Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska, massive old-growth cedars and Sitka spruce tower in the sky above and create a complex forest below to make a perfect home for a not-so-large resident deer: the Sitka black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus sitkensis). In fact, Sitka black-tailed deer are the smallest black-tailed deer in North America.
Read on to learn five not-so-small facts about the spectacular Sitka black-tailed deer!
1. Black-tailed deer are a subspecies of mule deer.
Did you know there are two types of deer in North America? White-tailed deer and mule deer. Black-tailed deer are a subspecies of mule deer and are found in the western U.S. Their name comes from their large, mule-like ears. While white-tailed deer have antlers that grow multiple points off of one main stem, black-tailed and mule deer antlers fork, not following a main stem.
Sitka black-tailed deer’s antlers are small compared to other antlered species. Normal adult antler development is only three points on each side, six points total.
Bonus: Do female deer have antlers?
Female deer do not have antlers. Caribou are the only ungulates whose females also produce antlers.
2. What is a baby deer called? A fawn! Like most deer, Sitka black-tailed deer usually have twins!
Adults begin the rut, or breeding season, in early November which lasts about a month. Breeding males, or bucks, have a singular focus to challenge other males for access to breeding females, thus spend very little time foraging. By late November they will have used up much of their fat reserves, while females, called does, generally enter the winter in prime condition, ready to nurture developing fetuses.
Baby deer, called fawns, are born in late spring, and usually a doe produces twins. Sitka black-tailed deer are unique with their small, stocky and stubby-faced build. Does reach sexual maturity at age two and continue producing fawns each year until they reach about 10 to 12 years of age.
3. What do deer eat? Sitka black-tailed deer are browsers, primarily eating the leaves and stems of woody plants and shrubs, along with forbs, along the forest floor.
These deer thrive on a diverse diet, which is why the lush, old-growth rainforest of Southeast Alaska and British Columbia is an ideal home. In addition to leaves, stems, and forbs, Sitka black-tailed deer seasonally graze on newly emerging sedges along beaches during a limited period in spring, but overall very rarely eat grass.
4. Old growth forests, home to Sitka black-tailed deer, are in trouble.
During the winter, thick canopies of massive old-growth trees serve as lattice nets to intercept heavy snow loads that would otherwise form a deep blanket on the forest floor, impeding access to critical winter deer browsing. While there are still old-growth canopies that do this, many — centuries in the making — continue to be removed. As these canopies vanish, so do snow protections for Sitka black-tailed deer forage.
Now, with a more limited winter food source, their diet shifts to cedar, hemlock, and blueberry, and supplemented with arboreal lichens. While deer can consume this ruffage in a pinch, reliance on this restricted forage base is nutritionally insufficient and deer quickly exhaust their energy reserves. Now more than ever, restoration and conservation of old growth forests is critical for Sitka black-tailed deer.
5. Sitka black-tailed deer on Prince of Wales Island are predicted to decline by 20% to 30% over the next 20 years.
Sitka black-tailed deer are most populous on Prince of Wales Island, which has experienced a disproportionate amount of clear-cut old growth logging in the region and is the single most heavily logged landscape in the Tongass National Forest.
With increased pressure from habitat loss on Sitka black-tailed deer and diminishing population numbers comes an increased pressure on their main predator, Alexander Archipelago wolves. 90% of this wolf’s diet comes from Sitka black-tailed deer.
Prince of Wales Island is home to 30% of the Alaska Alexander Archipelago wolf population. As the island’s deer populations have dwindled, wolf populations responded in kind. Without improving habitat for deer, wolf populations are extremely vulnerable to decline, if not population level collapse. In a recent listing petition for Alexander Archipelago wolves under the Endangered Species Act, the Fish and Wildlife Service stated local extinction for wolves in the Prince of Wales Island complex is possible within as little as 30 years. Yet the listing petition was denied.
You Can Help
Now more than ever, protecting Tongass old-growth forests from industrial-scale logging is imperative to maintain viable, well-distributed populations of Sitka back-tailed deer and their counterpart, the Alexander Archipelago wolf. Join Defenders of Wildlife as we help fight the latest attack on the Tongass by working to oppose the South Revilla Old Growth timber sale.
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