WHITETAIL LONGEVITY

White-tailed deer often live for more than 20 years when raised in captivity. But it’s a different story in the wild. Worn teeth, arthritis and general body deterioration eventually hinder a deer’s ability to feed and evade predators. Any wild deer in excess of 10 years old can be considered an “old deer.”

The oldest free-ranging whitetail reported in scientific literature is a 20-year-old doe from New York. However, Leonard Lee Rue III, in his 1989 book, “The Deer of North America,” notes that two ear-tagged Alabama does were killed by hunters when they were 21 and 23 years old.

I became especially interested in old does when I captured an old ear-tagged doe in Upper Michigan’s Petrel Grade deer yard in 1969. Upon checking deer tagging records at the nearby Cusino Wildlife Research Station, I learned that the animal was live-trapped, ear-tagged and released into the wild