Their red-brown coats have been replaced with gray-brown, winter is coming. The long guard hairs of a white-tail's winter coat are two times longer than the summer hair, a thick undercoat develops to help insulate their bodies against the cold. Winter guard hairs are hollow and can be fluffed out to add extra air space for warmth, giving a sometimes ratty look to winter deer. The insulation is so effective that snow will lay unmelted on a deer's back during a storm, body heat is not lost enough to melt it off.
1 comment:
The deer are certainly abundant this year, but I never tire of seeing them!
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