This gentle and beautiful animal can often be seen in the gardens and parks of many European countries. In places where there is no hunting for them, these beautiful living creatures are very trusting people. However, in hunting farms and in the wild, they are also less careful than other representatives of this family.
The article will focus on an animal called the European fallow deer.
Their habitat is the most diverse. They can be found in various parts of the world. Although their historical homeland is the region of Mesopotamia (between the Tigris and Euphrates).
A bit from the story of fallow deer
In ancient times, the place of the desert landscapes of Iraq had a completely different climate. Then there were subtropical forests. According to the remains that have survived today (the regions of the mountains of Northern Iraq and Southern Iran), one can judge the habitats of the Persian fallow deer.
During the heyday of the Roman Empire, the first fallow deer were exported from Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean, the subsequent descendants of which found a new homeland on these lands. It is known that not only Rome contributed to the appearance of this animal on new lands. There is documentary evidence that the pharaohs of Ancient Egypt conducted successful events to resettle this beautiful deer on the northern coasts of Africa.
Since the twentieth century, doe is already a common animal species in many countries of the world.
European fallow deer: description
Doe belongs to the deer family. This animal is of medium size: its height at the withers is from 85 to 100 cm (adult males), body length reaches about 140 cm. Live weight is 100 kg, but females are slightly smaller than males. The European subspecies reaches a length of up to 175 cm. The length of its tail is 20 cm, its height is from 80 to 105 centimeters. The weight of some of them reaches 110 kg (males).
What is the difference between doe and deer? The difference is this: it is lighter and smaller than the red deer, but much larger than the roe deer; has a shorter neck and limbs and a more muscular body than a red deer. Doe is inferior to other deer in dexterity, speed of running and in the ability to jump.
In this animal, the head is wide in the frontal part, sharply tapering to the nasal mirror, long pointed ears and huge dark brown eyes. All this gives her a special charm. Compared to other types of deer, doe (photo below) has a thicker body, has shorter ears and a neck.
The color of the animal varies with the seasons. In summer, the upper side and tip of the tail are painted reddish-brown with white spots, and the lower body and legs are lighter. The head, neck and ears are dark brown in winter, and the sides and back become almost black. The abdominal part of the body at this time is ash gray. There are both white and black types of fallow deer. Young fallow deer are mottled, spotted.
How did it all start?
European fallow deer is a very beautiful and small deer, introduced in the century before last from the Mediterranean countries to Askania Nova (reserve).
In the twentieth century (from the 40s to the 60s), European fallow deer were introduced to the hunting grounds of some regions of Ukraine to increase the fauna of ungulates and to rationally use them in the future as hunting and game animals.
Habitat
Mostly European fallow deer keeps mixed and deciduous forests on the foothills and plains with the most diverse vegetation and necessarily a shallow cover of snow in the winter.
Usually grazing in small herds, in the daytime fallow deer roam the forest glades and forest edges. They feed on grassy plants, young shoots and leaves of deciduous shrubs and trees. Fallow deer also peel the bark more than they can cause considerable damage to the forest.
The peculiarity and lack of fallow deer content in a mild European climate is the need for feeding and protection from predators. Such constant custody and allows you to maintain a high density of this species almost everywhere.
In general, the European fallow deer shows excellent adaptability to subsistence in different climate conditions (tropics and moderately cold). We can say that the only factor that limits the fallow deer migration to the more distant northern areas is the depth of snow cover, which is associated with unsuccessful acclimatization cases in some places, for example, in the northern regions of Russia and the countries of Scandinavia.
Lifestyle
The habitat of this animal is similar to that of a red deer, but the doe is less careful and shy. She is not inferior in agility and speed to a red deer.
European fallow deer is a herd of animals. Females in summer usually keep groups in family. Old males walk in herds several heads or one at a time, only since August they form small herds (about 10 individuals), joining the females. In the spring (in April), the horns of old males are discarded, and new ones formed in August are cleaned of skin.
Food
Doe is a ruminant, herbivore. Their food is foliage of trees and shrubs and grass.
Doe is also fed with berries, acorns, mushrooms, chestnuts, etc. As noted above, sometimes doe (photo below) feeds on tree bark and young shoots of maple, mountain ash, aspen, and hornbeam, but the damage from this is not as big as from red deer.
