Deer, by Melodi

Vermont Animals - Deer

By Melodi

One day, I was in my car and I saw two deer, and they were looking at me really strange. They had really big ears and a lot of spots. And then they ran away. But the funny thing was, when my dad stopped, we had some things in my car, where I was sitting, and when he stopped, all those things fell down!

Anyways, I’m Melodi and I’m learning a lot about deer because they’re my favorite animal. I think that the deer I saw were fawns because they had spots. Do you know what fawns are? They are baby deer. A mother deer is called a doe, and a father deer is called a buck. I learned it from my book, and you could do it too.

Did you know when bucks are young they have really little antlers coming out? And then when they are one or two years old, the antlers grow bigger. Bucks’ antlers grow in spring, and fall off in winter. Isn’t that amazing? And the antlers get eaten by rodents. When the antlers are small, they’re really soft because they have velvet on them. When the velvet comes off it looks bloody, but actually it’s not bloody. Inside the velvet is red. Do you know how bucks get the velvet off the antlers? They only rub it off on the bark of trees.

Another cool thing about deer is their footprints. When they walk, their footprints look like hearts. And when they run, the heart shape opens, and you can see their little toes that look like your fingernail. Deer have four toes. Two are really small and two of them are big. Deer have hooves that are so sharp, that if a wolf is attacking them, they can kick him and hurt him with the sharp part of their hooves.