Interesting facts you may not know about Idaho's deer and elk

White-tailed deer

Whitetails are not only the OG deer species of North America, they are also the oldest living deer species on earth. Their direct ancestors reached North America by crossing the Bering Land Bridge into Alaska, and fossils very difficult to distinguish from modern whitetails have been found in Florida that date back 5 million years. (Source: National Deer Association)

The size, shape and location of a whitetail’s eyes give it vision 310 degrees around themselves, and their night vision is as good as their day vision. So if you think whitetails have eyes in the back of their heads and keep vampire hours, you may be right. 

Idaho’s whitetails are widely perceived as homebodies who live in a fairly small area year round. However, data from Fish and Game’s GPS collar research has shown some does traveled 20-25 miles to have their fawns, then returned months later with their fawns in tow. 

Whitetail fawns are small at birth, typically weighing 6-8 lbs, and some subspecies, like Florida's Keys deer, may weigh about 2 lbs at birth. But whitetail fawns can double their weight in their first week, and commonly weigh 10 times their birth weight by their first winter. (Source: National Deer Association)

Idaho’s historic deer harvest has long been dominated by mule deer. In 1975, Fish and Game started tracking the harvest by species, and in 1994, whitetails topped mule deer for the first time ever. Since then, whitetail harvest has exceeded mule deer five more times, most recently in 2023. Mule deer continue to be the larger portion of the harvest in most years, but the percentage of whitetails has crept up due to healthy populations and increased interest in hunting them.