| The Great Outdoors |
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 By Tom Dickson Minnesota Department of Natural Resources If Minnesota held a popularity contest for wild animals, the white-tailed deer would probably win. Admired for its speed and jumping ability, a deer can run 40 miles per hour and leap over a fence eight feet tall. Even from a standstill, a deer could jump straight up and over your teacher's head. People like the beauty and graceful movements of the white-tailed deer. The buck's antlers look like an ivory crown. When it walks, a deer seems almost to float. It moves silently into the woods, sometimes disappearing from sight in the blink of an eye. The whitetail is one of five members of the deer family living in Minnesota. The others are moose, elk, mule deer, and caribou. Adult female white-tailed deer weigh about 145 pounds, males 170 pounds, about the average weight of female and male humans. Some whitetails are much larger than that. The biggest one ever recorded in the United States was a 500-pound Minnesota buck. Minnesota has about 1 million white-tailed deer. Deer are so adaptable they are found in every county. They live in farmlands, deep forests, and wide-open bog country. MINNESOTA Deer Hunt season opens officially on November 7. The Muzzleloader season runs from Nov. 29 to December 13. MASCOT Outdoors: The Minneota Mascot will include an Outdoors section in each week’s paper. Contributing photos and stories will be accepted. The new section is kicked off this week with a story about Rick’s Bait and Taxidermy Shop. It runs on the front and back pages of this edition. The Mascot will take outdoors stories and photos. We’ll print as much information as possible on a weekly basis and information will also be included on The Mascot website t www.minneotamascot.com Send information and photos to: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
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