The white-tailed deer are starting to lose their luxurious gray fur coats. They’re entering the spring molt that will leave them with thin, reddish summer coats. The process apparently is an itchy one, judging by the additional time that the deer are spending on grooming themselves and each other.
The molt primarily is to provide better summer heat control. The deer don’t have enough sweat glands to prevent overheating by evaporative cooling the way we do. Thus, their winter coats’ insulating underfur is molted away in the spring. This leaves only short and thin guard hairs that allow cooling breezes to reach their bodies in a form of air convection. (Image taken in Brooklin, Maine on April 17, 2022.)