It looks like all of the white-tailed deer that co-own our property have shed their reddish summer sport coats and grown into their winter gray overcoats. The deer will blend into the woods better now and be much warmer.
Some of the deer are sporting winter fur vests on their chests that seem darker and more defined than in past years. But that impression may be the result of my increasingly poor memory. They don’t have that melanistic look; but I’m no vet, either.
In fact, all the deer that I’ve seen this year have appeared to be robustly healthy – bright eyed, bushy-tailed, and wet-nosed:
Being wet-nosed is important to a deer. As you may know, that moist, furless skin around the nostrils of deer and other mammal's (their “rhinaria”) serves an important sensory function. The wetness enhances their sense of smell by trapping multitudes of scent molecules that are then mysteriously detected and differentiated into recognition by the deer.
(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on November 6, 2025.)