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White-tailed deer fawn; photo by funpics47 on Flickr (noncommercial use permitted with attribution / share alike).
White-Tailed Deer
Arkansas officially designated the graceful white-tailed deer as state mammal in 1993. An animal of incredible beauty and power, white-tailed deer are able to run up to 40 miles per hour, jump 9 foot fences, and swim 13 miles per hour. The white underside of the deer's tail waves when running and is flashed as a warning when danger is sensed. Fawns are born with white spots for camouflage. Both native Americans and settlers relied on the white-tailed deer for buckskin and food.
The elegant white-tailed deer is the most popular official state mammal (eleven states: Arkansas - Illinois - Michigan - Mississippi - Nebraska - New Hampshire - Ohio - Oklahoma - Pennsylvania - South Carolina - Wisconsin).
