deer ecology
Mortality & Longevity
Mortality
The major causes of deer mortality in Illinois are hunting and deer–vehicle collisions.
Other Causes
- disease
- train collisions
- fence entanglement
- poaching
- predation—most often occurs with fawns and weakened adults
- starvation—not a serious issue in Illinois because of the generally abundant food
- severe weather—not typically an issue with mostly mild Illinois winters
Longevity
Longevity of individual deer is influenced by a range of factors, including their genetics, food availability, habitat, weather conditions, presence of predators, and the prevalence of parasites and diseases in the area.
In hunted areas of central and northern Illinois, average life span was 5½ years for females and 2½ years for males. Some deer do survive longer: the oldest female in one study was 18 years of age, while the oldest male was 9 years old. While survival decreases as deer age, females’ survival does not decrease as rapidly after about 6 years of age.
Aging Deer
Determining a deer’s age is often done by studying the teeth for eruption and wear.
Another technique using cementum annuli can give a better estimate of the age of a deer. This method analyzes the annual deposition of cementum—the calcified surface layer of the tooth root. The density of cementum varies over time and can be detected as rings denoting years of different growth. However, tooth eruption and wear are more commonly used, as these techniques are faster and less expensive to complete.
Deer use incisor teeth in the front of the bottom jaw and a hard palate on the top jaw to tear and break apart food.
Food is chewed by premolars and molars in the back of the jaw.
The large gap between the incisors and the premolars is called the diastema.
Occasionally white-tailed deer possessing upper canines are reported. Researchers believe these small, peg-like teeth may be an evolutionary throwback to ancestral deer. A rare occurrence, these teeth may or may not break through the gum and are most often seen by taxidermists or those preparing a European skull mount.