The white-tailed deer runs up 8,203 Wisconsin records across 74 counties, the deepest record set of any mammal in this state atlas, reaching from Peninsula State Park on the Door County peninsula west to Crex Meadows Wildlife Area in the northwestern barrens and north into Northern Highland State Forest.
A browser at the seam of farm and forest
White-tailed deer live on twigs, buds, leaves, acorns, and farm crops, and they thrive where woods and open ground interleave. Wisconsin offers that seam at every scale, and the county list shows how completely the deer has claimed it. The heaviest counts come from Waukesha, Dane, and Milwaukee counties in the settled southeast, where woodlots, parks, and suburbs make prime edge habitat, while places like Kettle Moraine State Forest-Southern Unit, Willow River State Park, and Havenwoods Forest Preserve And Nature Center hold deer close to the state’s biggest cities.
Fawns in June, yards in winter
Counts climb sharply through spring and crest in June, when does drop their fawns and family groups become visible along meadows and field edges. Farther north, deep snow pushes deer into winter yards, sheltered concentrations under conifer cover where animals move less and browse close. Even in those quiet months Wisconsin counts never stall, and the November rut keeps bucks traveling widely, so the deer stays the state’s most visible large mammal in every season.
Status in Wisconsin
NatureServe ranks the white-tailed deer S5, Secure, in Wisconsin, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
Full species profile
