If you’ve ever thought you saw the same deer more than once whether hunting, hiking, or just enjoying time outdoors, you’re probably wondering: how long do deer live?
The average deer lifespan is between 4-5 years in the wild, depending gender, location, and other factors.
There are several criteria that impact how long do deer live, which we’ll cover in this guide.
How Long Do Deer Live?
To understand deer lifespan, we need to break down the different variations of deer life expectancy.
Whitetail Deer Lifespan
How long do whitetail deer live?
The average lifespan of a whitetail deer is between 4-5 years.
The life expectancy of whitetail can vary wildly due to several different factors which we’ll cover in greater detail below.
How Long Do Mule Deer Live?
Mule deer live between 9-11 years.
How Long Do Male Deer Live?
The average deer lifespan of a buck is about 2-4 years.
Male deer have shorter lifespans than female deer primarily due to hunting and some differences in behavior.
How Long Do Female Deer Live?
The average deer lifespan of a doe is about 4-6 years.
Female deer tend to live longer than male deer because most hunting restrictions don’t allow does to be hunted.
How Long Do Deer Live In The Wild?
The life expectancy of a wild deer is between 4-6 years.
This is significantly shorter than deer in captivity due to hunting, accidents with humans, and uncontrolled environmental factors.
How Long Do Deer Live In Captivity?
The lifespan of a deer in captivity ranges from 10 to 20 years, with most living until their early teens.
Are Deer Endangered?
White-tailed deer are not endangered, with estimates of their North American population being between 8 to 15 million.
Deer were once close to extinction due to hunting around the 1900s, but their populations have reached their highest numbers ever in the past few years.
Deer Lifespan: Factors That Affect How Long Deer Live
Regional Weather & Climate
The weather and climate of a deer’s home region can greatly impact the average deer lifespan.
Deer simply do not live as long in regions where there is lots of snowfall or fluctuation in temperatures.
During winter season, deer have to contend with starvation due to plants dying and have water sources due to freezing.
Additionally, drought can make a heavy impact on how long a deer lives by removing both water and food sources.
This is why you’ll find some of the oldest deer in places with relatively stable weather like Georgia and Texas.
Hunting
Although rules and regulations vary by state and even by county, hunting accounts for the loss of over 5.5 million deer each year, which negatively impacts the average lifespan of a deer.
The effects of hunting are greater where there are more hunters and looser regulations, and deer have longer lifespans on average in areas with less hunting or tighter rules.
Roads & Auto Accidents
The closer a deer is to a road, the shorter the life expectancy is.
There are over a million auto accidents involving deer each year, with most deer dying from collisions with a vehicle.
Predators
Predators like coyotes, bobcats, mountain lions, and bears all pose a risk to the deer population, so the wildlife and specific predators in the area a deer resides in can affect how long a deer lives.
Diseases
Diseases have a big effect on how old can deer live.
Diseases like chronic wasting disease, bovine tuberculosis, and epizootic hemorrhagic disease are transmitted through different methods and each can significantly shorten the lifespan of deer.
The Deer’s Maternal Relationship
It’s not just made up from Bambi: a fawn’s relationship to its mother plays a big role in a deer life expectancy.
The mother will take care of, protect, and feed a baby deer during its first year of life, but if something happens to the mother, the fawn will usually not survive, leading to a significantly shorter deer life span.
How Long Do Deer Live? Wrapping Things Up
Although the average deer lifespan is only 5 years, there have been some deer (mostly in captivity) that have lived up to 20 years of age!
There are many factors that affect how old deer can live, with many factors being affected by the area the deer reside in.
What’s the oldest deer you ever came across? Let us know in the comments below.
