How Long Do Deer Live?

A deer has to avoid a lot of threats to its life to get old in the wild like this buck has. Patricia Neal / Maryland Department of Natural Resources

How long a deer lives usually depends on habitat, pressure from predators, and a variety of other factors

By Katie Hill / Outdoor Life

The oldest wild whitetail ever documented lived to be 24 years old. That’s impressive—but also the exception, not the norm. In North America, wild deer usually have short, hard lives as they navigate natural predators, heavy traffic, loss of habitat, drought, disease, and hunters. On average, most wild deer live only a few years.

But we also know that deer are capable of living much longer lives, thanks to studies and observations of deer raised in captivity. Deer in captivity have a much easier time growing old, but some deer in the wild end up dying from complications of old age, too—thanks to their fine-tuned self-preservation skills, plain old luck, or a combination of both. CONTINUE READING