The fallow deer (Dama dama) is a ruminant mammal belonging to the family Cervidae. This common species is native to Europe, but has been introduced to Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, South Africa, Fernando Pó, São Tomé, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mayotte, Réunion, Seychelles, Comoro Islands, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Cyprus, Israel, Cape Verde, Lebanon, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United States, the Falkland Islands, and Peru. Some taxonomers include the rarer Persian fallow deer as a subspecies (D. d. mesopotamica), while others treat it as a different species (D. mesopotamica).
Description & appearance
The male fallow deer is known as a buck, the female is a doe, and the young a fawn. Adult bucks are 140–160 cm (55–63 in) long, 85–95 cm (33–37 in) in shoulder height, and typically 60–100 kg (130–220 lb) in weight; does are 130–150 cm (51–59 in) long, 75–85 cm (30–33 in) in shoulder height, and 30–50 kg (66–110 lb) in weight. The largest bucks may measure 190 cm (75 in) long and weigh 150 kg (330 lb). Fawns are born in spring around 30 cm (12 in) and weigh around 4.5 kg (10 lb). Their lifespan is around 12–16 years. Much variation occurs in the coat colour of the species, with four main variants: common, menil, melanistic, and leucistic – a genuine colour variety, not albinistic. The white is the lightest coloured, almost white; common and menil are darker, and melanistic is very dark, sometimes even black (easily confused with the sika deer).
- Common: Chestnut coat with white mottles, it is most pronounced in summer with a much darker, unspotted coat in the winter. The light-coloured area around the tail is edged with black. The tail is light with a black stripe.
- Menil: Spots are more distinct than common in summer and no black is seen around the rump patch or on the tail. In winter, spots are still clear on a darker brown coat.
- Melanistic (black): All-year the coat is black shading to greyish brown. No light-coloured tail patch or spots are seen.
- Leucistic (white, but not albino): Fawns are cream-coloured; adults become pure white, especially in winter. Dark eyes and nose are seen. The coat has no spots.
Most herds consist of the common coat variation, yet animals of the menil coat variation are not rare. The melanistic variation is generally rarer, and white is very much rarer still, although wild New Zealand herds often have a high melanistic percentage.
A skeleton of stag (male) exhibited at Mammal Gallery in the Natural History Museum of Pisa University.
Only bucks have antlers, which are broad and shovel-shaped (palmate) from three years. In the first two years, the antler is a single spike. They are grazing animals; their preferred habitat is mixed woodland and open grassland. During the rut, bucks spread out and females move between them; at this time of year, fallow deer are relatively ungrouped compared to the rest of the year, when they try to stay together in groups of up to 150.
Agile and fast in case of danger, fallow deer can run at a maximum speed of 50 km/h (30 mph) over short distances. Being naturally less muscular than other cervids such as roe deer, they are not as fast. Fallow deer can also make jumps up to 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in) high and up to 5 m (16 ft) in length.
Distribution & habitat
The fallow deer is a Eurasian deer that was a native to most of Europe during the last interglacial. In the Holocene, the distribution was restricted to the Middle East and possibly also parts of the Mediterranean Basin, while further southeast in western Asia was the home of the Persian fallow deer, which is bigger and has larger antlers. In the Levant, fallow deer were an important source of meat in Palaeolithic cultures (420,000–200,000 BCE), as is shown by bones, also used for conserving the marrow to be eaten weeks after the kill, found in the Qesem cave, but the numbers decreased in the following Epipalaeolithic Natufian culture (10000–8500 BCE), perhaps because of increased aridity and the decrease of wooded areas. Mating & reproduction
Fallow deer are highly dimorphic, polygynous breeders the breeding season or rut lasts approximately 135 days. In the Northern hemisphere the breeding season tends to occur in the second half of October, while it occurs in April in the south, some matings can still occur before and after. This mating behaviour within the rut most often occurs in leks, where males congregate in small groups on mating territories in which the females’ only purpose for visiting these territories is for copulation. But there can be variation within fallow deer mating systems, other than the traditional behaviour of lekking different types of mating behaviours can include harems, dominance groups, stands, temporary stands, and multiple stands. Different populations, environmental variation, size, and even age can determine the type of variation within a fallow deer mating system. But lekking behaviour is the most commonly found and studied in nature, variation can be explained by three characteristics (1) The optimal strategy under specific environmental or social conditions, (2) The strategy of an individual may be dependent on the strategies of other individual males within the same population, and (3) Individual males may be less capable at gaining access to females since they can be outcompeted by other males that are more capable.
Lek mating systems are important to understanding, which leads to fewer studies focusing on the reproductive success of males away from the lek or other mating system types. The females are polyestrous, meaning that during their sexual cycle the females will "heat up" which means that they are ready to mate and willing to accept a male, but if this does not occur the "heat" will come repeatedly throughout the breeding season. The heat is usually referred to as increased serum progesterone levels in the female fallow deer and is associated with the corpora lutea. The male rut behaviour includes licking and sniffing the anal area of the female, also the hair below the vulva, this helps the male to determine if the female is fertile. A high-pitched whine is used many times to initiate mating behaviour, after the male displays this a number of times the female will eventually allow the male to mount; copulation can last as long a 5 minutes.
Many deer species—including fallow deer—have a social organization which can be tremendously plastic depending on their environment, meaning that group size and habitat type are closely linked to herd size. It is important to note that most of the detailed research on the ecological characteristics and behaviour of fallow deer occur in large blocks of woodland, which means there may be some bias present. Fallow deer can be found in a variety of habitats when can range from cool and wet to hot and dry habitats. Fallow deer seem to have a preference for older forests with dispersed areas of grass, trees, and a variety of other vegetation. The largest herd occurs right before the rutting season, while the smallest groups are females with fawns. Throughout a large portion of the year the sexes remain separated and only congregate during the mating months, however, other patterns may be described; such as bachelor groups and even mixed groups.
In male fallow deers, their low frequency groans are produced by vocal tracts that are of consistent but complex shape. Experimentation showed that vocal production of these groans are dependent on both their nasal and oral cavities.
Ruts are characterized by males gaining the best territory possible to increase their odds for mating and are often characterized by the presence of females on stands. During this time males will stop feeding to defend their ruts from subordinate males. Males defending this territory will often lose an average of 17% of their body weight, and the liver will exhibit steatosis which is reversible. Throughout breeding seasons, the male may obtain the same rut, in some cases, ruts can be held by more than one individual, some possibilities for this include high population density and less rut space, or more suitable habitats which can be shared.
After the females are impregnated the gestation period lasts up to 245 days and usually birth one fawn as twins can be quite rare. The females can conceive when they are 16 months, whereas the males can successfully breed at 16 months, but most do not breed until they are 48 months.The females can become very cagy just before they give birth to their fawn and find secluded areas such as a bush or cave, sometimes females will give birth near the herd. As soon as the female gives birth, the female will then lick the fawn to clean it, this helps initiate the maternal bond between the two, females are the only sex that provides parental investment; males do not participate in rearing the fawn.
After the birth of the fawn occurs, the females do not return to the herd for at least 10 days and for most of the days the mother is separated from the fawn, returning only to feed the fawn. The nursing period lasts about 4 months and happens every 4 hours each day. Rumination is a critical part of development in the fawn’ life, and this develops about 2 to 3 weeks into the fawns life. Females initiate the weaning periods for the fawn which lasts about 20 days; 3 to 4 weeks late the fawn will start to follow its mother, and they will finally rejoin the herd together.The mother frequently licks the fawn's anal area to stimulate suckling, urination, and defecation which is a critical part of the development of the fawn. Weaning is completed at around 7 months and at around 12 months the fawn is independent, after the 135 days of reproduction, the rut comes to an end which can be characterized by the changes in group size and behaviour.