Order Artiodactyla in Maine
 (Kingdom Animalia, Phylum Chordata, Class Mammalia)

(updated 2 August 2026)


Order Artiodactyla - even-toed ungulates
The tracks of moose and deer are unmistakable. The common ancestor of mammals had five toes on each foot. In the Cervidae, one of these five (toe #1, equivalent to our thumb) has been lost over time. Of the remaining four, toes 3 and 4 have each evolved into one of the two elongate parts of the hoof, and toes 2 and 5 are now the roundish dew claws behind 3 and 4, whose prints are visible in deep snow or mud. Although in a soft substrate, toes 3 and 4 splay apart, their front parts are still closer to each other than their rear parts are, and, thus, together they “point” in the direction of travel.

Maine is home to 2 species in 2 genera in 1 family (Cervidae).

If you are interested in learning about a particular species, click on the name of that species in the list below. Otherwise, to determine which genus that the animal you are trying to identify belongs to, refer to the tabular key immediately below the species list.

Family Cervidae
   Alces (1 species)
      Alces americanus - moose
   Odocoileus (1 species)
      Odocoileus virginianus - white-tailed deer




Family Cervidae ([common name])
[information to be added]

Key to Maine’s genera of Family Cervidae
front foot size
(L x W in inches)		 hind foot size
(L x W in inches)		 antler portions char. 4
Alces 43/8–7 x 33/4–6 41/8–61/2–31/2–45/8 beam, paddle, tines
Odocoileus 13/8–4 x 7/8–27/8 11/4–31/2 x 3/4–23/8 beam, tines


Alces (moose)
[information to be added]

Alces americanus (moose)
   This moose was photographed in the back yard of a home in Bowdoin, Maine.
   
   (click on image to enlarge)


Odocoileus (deer)
[information to be added]

Odocoileus virginianus (white-tailed deer)
   The five deer (below left) were feeding very early one morning in a yard behind a Bar Harbor residence on Mount Desert Island. Sometimes a deer (below right) will walk within about 20 feet from the same residence.
      
   (click on an image to enlarge)

   This doe and fawn (below left) were in the same backyard as the deer shown above but at a different time. The fawn (below right) was lying safely in tall grass in a cemetery in Bar Harbor.
      
   (click on an image to enlarge)

   White-tailed deer scat (below) is distinctive, usually with a small depression in one end of each pellet.
   
   (click on image to enlarge)