Wisconsin State "Wildlife Animal": White-tail Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)

Wisconsin State "Wildlife Animal" - The white-tailed deer was designated the state "wildlife animal" in 1957.

In 1957, a bill to establish the badger as state animal was introduced at the request of four Jefferson County elementary school students who discovered from a historical society publication that the badger had not been given the official status most people assumed. However, serious opposition developed when a faction from Wisconsin's northern counties introduced a bill to make the white-tailed deer the official animal, citing the state's large native deer population, the animal's physical attributes, and the considerable economic benefits derived from the annual deer hunt. The legislature reached a compromise by adding two official animals. In Chapter 209, Laws of 1957, it named the badger the "state animal", and Chapter 147 designated the white-tailed deer as the state "wildlife animal".

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