User:Calebblonk

Bio:
Thank You for visiting my user page.

Hi, my name is Caleb Blonk, I am 16 and I live in Washington. I enjoy learning and playing sports. Currently I am in the Running start program at evcc. I like to play football, snowboard, wrestle, water-ski, and hunt.

The reason I have this account is for my English 101 class. We are going to be doing a lot of research and practicing our writing on Wikipedia and on WikiEdu. I hope my classmates and I make useful contributions to the Wikipedia web-page.

Article Critique
I visited the white-tailed deer page on Wikipedia and found three points worth commenting on: the deer description, antlers, and predators. The white tailed deer is a fascinating species of deer that are only in certain places within the U.S.

Description:
The deer's fur/ coats color is seasonal while during the fall and winter the coat is grey-brown and turns to a red-brown during spring and summer while the underside of it's tail is a bright white. When the white-tailed deer is frightened it raises the white tail to scare off predators. The article said that the deer get larger further away from the equator but this is not technically true. Deer get larger based off the food supply around them. If there is a good greens and berry supply in the deer's surroundings the deer will thrive and get larger. Yes, there tends to be more greens and berries further away from the equator but in areas near the equator there can be vegetation resulting in big deer.

Antlers:
The white tailed deer, like most deer, shed their antlers yearly and will regrow them. Some buck's antlers do not branch off like most bucks do, these are called spikes. This article said that spikes are not a good way of telling a deer's age, this is also false. Spiked deer are in their first 3 to 4 months of life because in their 4th or 5th month is when their antlers start to grow bigger between 2 and 4 points on each side of the head. Antlers are determined by nutrition, age, and genetics. Antlers grow in the spring covered in velvet and are normally equal on both sides. Some buck have atypical antlers meaning the antlers are not identical on both sides. Antlers shed in the winter, from late December to February.

Predators:
Wolves, cougars, alligators and jaguars are some natural predators of the white tailed deer though us humans are the greatest predator of this animal. Sometimes eagles will attack deer and try to catch the fawns with their talons. Deer breathe heavily and lift their tails to warn the other deer of the threat of predators in the area. Unexpected ambush of the deer is the best way predators hunt them. The white tailed deer are known to run almost instantly after seeing a human. The white tails in Virginia have been recorded running at speeds of 47 mph and fan jump around 8.7 ft high and 33 ft in length. When scared the white tail jumps and runs in a zig-zag line with the white of it's tail up. The article claims that most predators choose to attack young deer because they are just that, young. This is another wrong thing about this article predators cannot just hunt the young because young are always with their mothers or family. They attack the solo deer, any deer that is alone is the deer they will attack mainly by ambush. Some deer are lone wolves and are always alone, these deer are the best for predators to attack, especially wolves and coyotes whom hunt in packs.

Conclusion:
When I visited the white tailed deer page on wikipedia i learned about the deer description, antlers, and predators. These are 3 of the most important things about the white tailed deer which had some false facts that I addressed in this critique and I was able to add comments to the page to help improve it

Table of Content:
White-tailed deer