March 1, 2007

Animal magnetism

New Almaden folks have a love/hate relationship with the black-tailed deer

By Jeanne Carbone Lewis
Staff Writer

Maybe you’ve seen them in the early morning hours or had an actual “deer in the headlights” experience driving the rural roads of New Almaden. Their scientific name is o. hemionus columbianus but the animal is more commonly known as “the black-tailed deer.”

“It’s a love/hate relationship with the black-tailed deer,” said Almaden Quicksilver Mining Museum park interpreter Terri Sanislo. Here a beautiful but hungry black-tailed deer enjoys green foliage in a New Almaden yard.

“People in New Almaden are ambivalent about the deer,” said Almaden Quicksilver Mining Museum park interpreter Terri Sanislo. “These beautiful animals are in our backyards but we’re fighting a war with them in our gardens. They ate all my geraniums and India hawthorns at Casa Grande. It’s a love/hate relationship with the black-tailed deer.”

But there’s a reason the black-tailed deer dine on the delectable foliage: they’re herbivores and feed on green leaves, herbs, weeds, grasses and even poison oak and ivy. They are found along the coastal mountain region from southern California to British Columbia and prefer coastal mountain regions. They are mammals that belong to the scientific classification Order Artiodactyla characterized by a four-chambered stomach, molars and toes that form into hooves.

The black-tailed deer are considered to be a sub-species of the mule deer and share many similarities but are much smaller weighing from 70 to 250 pounds. The discrepancy in weight varies depending on gender and the availability of food in a region. They are most active at dusk and dawn but also feed during the night. Bucks lose their antlers in March but will re-grow them in summer. They have acute hearing abilities and are very sensitive to moving objects. And, believe it or not, they are good swimmers.

Breeding season is in November with antlered stags fighting for possession of mates. The female doe will have her first young at two years old from April through June and deliver one to four fawns. Newborn fawns weigh from three to six pounds and are only 12 inches long. The babies have no scent and their coat provides camouflage to keep predators away.

The mothers leave the fawns alone sometimes for hours while they feed. Well-meaning humans often will rescue “abandoned” babies, but in realty they should be left alone as the mother is off feeding and will return to nurse them periodically. The black-tailed deer has a life span of approximately 16 years in the wild and 25 years in captivity.

Natural predators are mountain lions, coyotes, cougars, eagles, wolves and bobcats. Their chief enemy is humans; hunters and automobiles destroy an estimated 400,000 deer annually.

If deer are lunching on your foliage, the Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley suggests a fence at least eight feet high as the best guard for rose bushes and gardens. A visit to a local nursery for deer-resistant shrubs and plants is also suggested, although New Almaden residents say “the deer will eat anything and everything.” And a barking dog is also a good deterrent.