However seldom we experience the mountains, trees & rivers; in the Northeast forests of the United States — the traditional lands and hunting grounds of the Onondaga, Tuscarora, Oneida, Cayuga, Seneca & Mohawk Nations — white-tailed deer are ever-present year-round.
Foraging endlessly on berries, planted crops and soft, young branches, during the growing seasons, deer focus on twigs, branches and fallen tree nuts during the colder months when fresh growth is harder to find under the frozen blankets of snow.
What is a white-tailed deer? Why is their tail white? What are their exciting features? Why can they be so troublesome?
White-tailed deer (Odocioleus virginianus) are a medium-sized deer species endemic to the Northeast United States.
Their bright white tails that flag up in the air when danger is near are one of their key features and the reason for their name. The visual indicator alerts nearby deer and may also communicate to the predator that they've been spotted.
Male (buck) and female (doe) differ strikingly in appearance from one another for part of the year, after bucks grow a set of antlers. They use the pointed racks to attract doe and fight other bucks during an aggressive time of the year known as 'the rut'.
When the rut ends and winter begins, the buck shed their antlers and become harder to distinguish from the doe.
Fawns (newborn and young deer) when first born have a spotted fur pattern that helps keep them hidden in the forests from would be predators.
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The leaves turn vibrant shades of red, yellow and orange.
This is when the rut begins.
Bucks, in their quest to mate, relentlessly pursue doe in the hopes they may breed and pass their genes into the next generation.
Constantly aware and ready to chase.
He will not eat, he will not rest.
At the end of the rut, the buck looks like a weathered stranger f his former self.
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When the season is done and the woods become quiet, the deer herds welcome the years new fawns to the world.
Small and ever curious, yet skittish, they grow and grow and grow from the rich milk their mother provides. Big Moose Lake, NY.
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Deer are habitat generalist. They are well adapted to surviving and thriving in a diverse range of ecosystems—natural and human made.
Logging equipment in Tuller Hill State Forest, Cortland, NY. Forests like Tuller Hill are actively managed for timber by the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). Per the DEC's website "...the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) sells standing timber from State Forests. The timber is marked by DEC foresters and then sold to the highest responsible bidder through a public, competitive bidding process."
As humanity pushes into nature, nature pushes into humanity.
Is there a meeting ground where both will thrive?
Pictured: A jogger runs down a dirt road next to a foraging deer, unbothered by the close proximity. In areas of high human-deer interaction deer are usually encouraged to be nearby because of gardens, bird feeders, or other available human-provided resources that are easy to find and consume or because the area is free of hunters year-round, creating a safe-haven for the animals. Raquette Lake, NY.
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Scientists are concerned that there are too many deer in the region's forests. Their big appetites cause them to over-browse on freshly sprouted woody plants. When the old plants die, the deer have left no new ones to take their place.
The forests are changing.
Photo of young vegetation that has been recently eaten by deer. Cortland, NY.
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When Europeans settled in the area of the Northeast, they brought livestock with them.
Gray wolves—once a widespread apex predator—saw the cows, goats and sheep as easier meals than the deer they were used to hunting.
Humans decided that the region and their livestock would be better off if the wolves were no longer around.
Photo courtesy of the Cortland County Historical Society.
When gray wolves were extirpated from the region the deer no longer had predators to keep their populations at healthy levels.
This void, along with human-caused development and disturbances to forest ecosystems, have lead the way to the worrisome deer numbers we see today.
Biologists like Larry Klotz PH.D. have taught many students about these problems using a taxidermied gray wolf that was shot and mounted by his great uncle, Joseph S. Evans, sometime between 1910-1920. Cortland, NY.
White-tailed deer have a cultural significance to the Native American tribes of the Northeast: the Onondaga, Tuscarora, Oneida, Cayuga, Seneca and Mohawk Nations.
They are also an important food source for many; hunting provides a strong connection between members of families and their greater communities.
What happens after the hunt? How does a deer turn into usable food? How are deer accounted for? How do skilled craftspeople turn dead deer into heirloom works of art?
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After hunters journey out into the forests and return from a successful hunt, many of the deer go to a meat processor.
Here the deer are butchered into cuts of meat that the hunter wants. Sometimes the hunter wants parts of the deer—namely the antlers and the head—saved for mounting at a taxfdermist.
Many of these businesses work closely with New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) field technicians whose most important jobs are to sex, age and determine the location of harvest of the deer that come to be butchered.
These data are used to help the DEC determine the populations and demographics of the deer across the state.
No matter the type of facility DEC field technicians travel to and maintain important relationships with these shops.
Informed decisions based off data are decisions that help humans and deer alike.
After the meat is rendered, sometimes arts of the deer are sent to skilled craftspeople to be turned into trophies—monuments of the hunt.
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A skilled taxidermist, Kersten practices his craft full-time.
As different hunting and fishing seasons come and go throughout the year, he has the motivational supply and creative talent for a year-long demand.
Deer season keeps Kersten particularly busy. As he works on one client's deer, another knocks on the door of his studio to drop off their deer for mounting—his phone rings constantly.
The knowledge and pasion that Kersten displays shows through in his work.
Draped over the form, then pulled snug for a test fit. The work of the taxidermist becomes more realized.
Shining eyes and the deers true antlers are joined to the fur and form.
Details are scanned over.
Just a little more.
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Deer are incredibly persistent.
Kersten pointed to this old arrow wound through the hide of the neck of this deer.
It was shot, survived, healed and thrived until being successfully hunted possibly years later.
Kersten says that finding old wounds like this and worse is not uncommon.
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In the city of Cortland, NY, there is a herd of deer that lives above an aquifer.
This herd has been a beloved part of the community since the 1940's.