![]() Wild deer live much harder lives and as a result, they don’t live nearly as long on average. On the other side of the fence, life ain’t so easy. In his classic book, Encyclopedia of Deer, Leonard Lee Rue references a deer that made it to the ripe old age of 23, and according to Kip Adams of the National Deer Association, the oldest deer on record, as far as they know, was a captive doe in Texas on the Kerr Wildlife Management Area that reached 23 to 24 years old. There are a number documented examples of captive whitetails (typically does) at research facilities living for 18, 19, and 20 or more years. Not only fenced they receive ample food and nutrition, they live a relatively stress-free life that allows them to get positively geriatric, compared to free-ranging deer. The Oldest Captive and Wild Whitetails on RecordĪs one might suspect, captive deer tend to live considerably longer wild ones. ![]() When a Wild Buck is Considered Mature: 4-1/2 years old.Oldest Captive Whitetail: 23 or 24 years old.Oldest Wild Whitetail Buck: 17 years old.Oldest Wild Whitetail Doe: 22 years old.Average Age of Captive Deer: 7-10 years.That said, here is a quick rundown of some pertinent numbers, and then we’ll get into the specifics. How long deer live depends on a host of factors, including whether the deer in question are captive or wild, hunted hard or hunted lightly, live in suburbia or in deep wilderness or in a CWD zone, and much more. ![]() So, how long do deer live, on average and under the best conditions. Life for a wild, free-ranging deer is so full of hazards that surviving to maturity requires a lot of tumblers to click. With modern hunters more likely to pass younger bucks, it’s fair to say that deer are living longer, but it’s still the case that a 6-1/2-year-old buck in any hard-hunted area is only a little easier to find than a unicorn or winged Pegasus. But the truth is, most wild deer never come close to reaching those age. These days, with every deer hunter and his brother running trail cameras and able to keep tabs on specific bucks for years, we sometimes hear about 7-1/2, 8-1/2, or even 9-1/2-year-old or older whitetails finally wearing a tag after an epic campaign. Older, pot-bellied bucks like this one are relatively rare in most hard-hunted areas.
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