There are numerous factors that play a role in deer movement, but the one thing that may usually be counted on is the movement of deer 30 minutes before sunrise and 30 minutes after sunset-when the deer are going to or leaving their feeding ground. The main factors in deer movement are precipitation, wind, hunting pressure, rut, and lunar movement. Deer will stay in their bedding area during times of heavy precipitation, and when the storm stops, the deer usually start moving. Trees and brush are usually dripping with the precipitation from the storm, and wind blowing in the woods may become very noisy. Both of these situations make the deer nervous and cause them to start moving. At the end of a storm the deer will move to an area they feel is safe for them; they will also start moving if the storm passed through their feeding period. Most deer feeding occurs in farm fields, such as corn and soybeans; because they dislike being in the open during a storm, deer tend to move to a more covered or concealed area of the feeding ground or leave the ground entirely until the storm ends, depending on previous activity as well as the above mentioned factors. The rut is usually a month-long period when bucks mate with does. It can be much longer or slightly shorter than one month. The rut causes deer to be more active and do things that they would not normally do. For example, they might be seen in the middle of the day running through fields trying to find their mate(s). During the rut season is typically when most car-deer collisions happen, mainly because they are on the move so much they cross paths that they normally wouldn’t. The last factor in deer movement is the position of the moon. When the moon is directly overhead, or below foot, deer seem to be more active in general.
Deer usually inhabit a relatively small home range, until harsh weather conditions force them to temporarily move elsewhere. Thus, deer in northern states have larger home ranges, since the winters are often long and brutal. Some northern deer travel 50 miles or more to suitable winter ranger. Weather is not the only factor that impacts on a herd’s home range. For example, most whitetails in Colorado or Kansas have larger home ranges than deer in Virginia or Alabama. Out West, the habitat is more sprawling and open and the doe densities are not as high as in the Southeastern states. Thus, western deer are forced to move longer distances to feed, bed and breed.
The lifespan of a whitetail is 11 to 12 years (17 to 20 years in captivity). But most free-roaming deer never live that long; they are hit by cars, succumb to disease, killed by predators or shot by hunters. In heavily hunted areas, many bucks live only 1½ or 2 ½ years.

Deer grow to about 6 feet long and stand 3 to 4 feet high. They are reddish or grayish in color, depending on their habitat and the time of year. The weight of whitetails varies, from 100 to more than 300 pounds.