Vermont reports more white-tailed deer than any other mammal in this atlas, 6803 records reaching all fourteen counties. The heaviest concentrations run through Washington and Chittenden counties and down the spine of the Green Mountains, where Green Mountain National Forest alone accounts for more than 200.
An edge animal in a forested state
White-tailed deer are browsers, living on twigs, buds, acorns, and green growth, and they feed most heavily where forest meets open ground. Vermont’s patchwork of valley farmland, regenerating cuts, and settled back roads gives them edge habitat at a statewide scale. Records cluster around places like Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, Jericho Research Forest, and Bomoseen State Park, and even the high country holds them, with reports inside the Breadloaf and Joseph Battell wilderness areas.
A year-round resident with a shifting calendar
Deer show up in Vermont records every month of the year, but the rhythm changes with the seasons. Reports crest in June, when does raise newborn fawns and summer growth keeps deer feeding in the open, and the November rut puts bucks on the move in daylight. In winter the counts settle to their lowest levels, not because deer leave but because deep snow pushes them into dense conifer cover, where they yard up and conserve energy until spring.
Status in Vermont
NatureServe ranks the white-tailed deer S5, Secure, in Vermont, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here, and it is not specifically listed under Vermont’s state-level conservation framework. Globally the IUCN treats it as Least Concern.
Full species profile
