50 free Deer trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
46 free Deer trivia questions with answers. Deer are the animals almost everyone has seen and almost nobody knows much about. This deer trivia quiz covers the whole family: how antlers grow and why they fall off, which species has tusks instead, the largest deer alive and the one that fits in a shoebox, why reindeer are the only deer whose females wear antlers, and how a moose can dive to a lake bottom for lunch. It also wanders into deer in culture: Bambi's species change between the book and the film, the department store that invented Rudolph, the sacred deer of Nara, the third labour of Heracles and the leaping deer on a tractor. There are questions on white-tailed deer for North American readers, red deer and roe deer for Europeans, and elk, chital, sika and muntjac for everyone else. The early questions suit kids and family quiz nights; the later ones will stretch hunters, hikers and biology students. Every answer was checked against a reference page, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Horns, found on cattle and sheep, are covered in a sheath made of what?
Keratin
Keratin is the same stuff as human fingernails, which is why horns keep growing for life while an antler is dead bone by the time it is fully grown.
Q 02What are wild reindeer called in North America?
Caribou
Same species, two names: the US FDA even rules that in North American English the animal is caribou if wild and reindeer if domesticated.
Q 03What is the largest living species of deer?
Moose
It stands nearly 2.6 metres tall and weighs up to 800 kg; confusingly, in Europe the same animal is called an elk.
Q 04The world's smallest deer, standing about 32 to 35 cm at the shoulder, is which South American animal?
Pudu
Its name is a loanword from Mapudungun, the language of the Mapuche people of Chile and Argentina.
Q 05Which continent has only one native deer, a subspecies of red deer confined to the Atlas Mountains?
Africa
That lone native is the Barbary stag; Australia has no native deer at all, only introduced ones.
Q 06The male water deer of Korea and China grows no antlers. What does it grow instead?
Long tusk-like canine teeth
The downward-pointing fangs have earned it the nickname 'vampire deer'; the South Korean population is around 700,000.
Q 07How many chambers does a deer's stomach have?
Four
Deer are ruminants like cattle, but with unusually small stomachs for the group, so they need low-fibre, high-nutrition food rather than coarse grass.
Q 08In Old English, the word 'deer' (dēor) originally meant what?
A wild animal of any kind
German 'Tier' and Dutch 'dier' still just mean animal; English narrowed the sense to one family around 1500.
Q 09Which deer has the heaviest antlers relative to its body mass, along with the reindeer?
Fallow
Its flat, palmate antlers average around 8 grams per kilogram of body weight; the smallest deer's are the lightest at 0.6 g/kg.
Q 10A newborn fawn stays hidden in the grass for roughly how long before it can walk with its mother?
One week
The mother licks the fawn almost free of scent so predators cannot smell it, then leaves it alone while she grazes.
Q 11The extinct Irish elk had the largest antlers of any deer. Roughly how wide could they span?
Over 4.2 metres
Despite the name, its closest living relatives are fallow deer, not either animal called an elk today.
Q 12White-tailed deer have been recorded running at about what speed?
40 mph
They can also clear a 9-foot fence from a standstill and leap 30 feet forward.
Q 13By about 1930, the US white-tailed deer population had crashed to roughly what number?
300,000
Regulated hunting and habitat change turned that around so completely that by 2005 the estimate was around 30 million.
Q 21The fold of skin hanging under a moose's chin is called a dewlap or, more commonly, a what?
Bell
Both bulls and cows have one, and nobody is entirely sure what it is for.
Q 22Moose were introduced in 1878 and 1904 to which Canadian island, where they are now the dominant large animal?
Newfoundland
Their effect on the island's native plants and animals is well documented, and they are famously a road hazard there.
Q 23A study using a microphone on trophy antlers found that a moose's broad palmate antlers do what?
Amplify sound at its ear
The flat antler acts like a parabolic reflector, so bulls with antlers hear better than those without.
Q 14A white-tailed deer's coat is reddish in summer. What colour is it in autumn and winter?
Grey-brown
The seasonal moult also gives the winter coat hollow hairs for insulation.
Q 15The Key deer, the smallest deer in North America, lives only in which US state?
Florida
It is a dwarf subspecies of the white-tail marooned in the Keys after the last ice age; most now live on Big Pine Key.
Q 16White-tailed deer were introduced for hunting to which Nordic country in 1935?
Finland
They were also released in Cuba, Jamaica, New Zealand and the Czech Republic; in Nova Scotia they wiped out the native caribou by carrying brainworm.
Q 17The mule deer of western North America is named after a mule because of its large what?
Ears
Its two black-tailed subspecies were once treated as a separate species but hybridise freely with the rest.
Q 18Which US state records the highest number of deer-vehicle collisions, an estimated 115,000 in 2013?
Pennsylvania
West Virginia is the state where an individual driver is most likely to hit one; nationally the crashes peak between May and November.
Q 19Chronic wasting disease was first identified in 1967 in mule deer in which state?
Colorado
Like BSE and scrapie it is caused by misfolded prion proteins, and it has since spread across dozens of states and into Scandinavia.
Q 20Moose have been recorded diving to what depth to reach plants on a lake bottom?
Over 5.5 metres
Their hollow guard hairs help them float and their splayed hooves work as paddles; orcas have been seen taking moose swimming between islands.
Q 24The name 'wapiti', used for the North American elk, comes from a Shawnee and Cree word meaning what?
White rump
Elk fluff up the pale patch around the tail to signal alarm, and the second-largest deer bugles rather than roars.
Q 25During the rut, bull elk advertise themselves with a loud whistle-like call known as what?
Bugling
Unusually for such a big animal, the call can reach 4,000 Hz; European red deer stags roar instead, an adaptation to forests.
Q 26Which subspecies, found west of the Cascade Range, is the largest of the North American elk?
Roosevelt elk
Introduced to Alaska, the biggest bulls there are estimated at 600 kg, and a bull's antlers alone can weigh 18 kg.
Q 27A male red deer is called a stag or hart. What is the female called?
Hind
Red deer are Europe's largest native deer and the fourth-largest deer species alive, after the moose, elk and sambar.
Q 28European roe deer have an unusually long 10-month gestation because of what reproductive quirk?
Delayed implantation of the embryo
They mate in summer but the embryo pauses for months, so fawns arrive the following June regardless.
Q 29When alarmed, a roe deer flashes its pale rear patch and makes a sound much like which animal?
A dog
Muntjac are nicknamed 'barking deer' for the same reason.
Q 30Apart from the moose, which is the only living deer with flattened, palmate antlers?
Fallow
Its name comes from its pale brown coat, and its European species has been introduced almost everywhere deer are kept in parks.