The white-tailed deer, also known commonly as the whitetail and the Virginia deer, is a medium-sized species of deer native to North, Central and South America. It is the most widely-distributed mainland ungulate herbivore in the Americas; coupled with its natural predator, the mountain lion, it is one of the most widely-distributed terrestrial mammal species in the Americas and the world. Highly adaptable, the various subspecies of white-tailed deer inhabit many different ecosystems, from arid grasslands to the Amazon and Orinoco basins; from the Pantanal and the Llanos to the high-elevation terrain of the Andes. Globally, the white-tailed deer has been introduced to New Zealand, the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean, and some countries in Europe.
