Deer
Encyclopedia
Deer are the ruminant
mammal
s forming the family
Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer
, elk
, moose
, red deer
, reindeer
, fallow deer
, roe deer
and chital
. Male deer of all species (except the Chinese water deer
) and female reindeer grow and shed new antler
s each year. In this they differ from permanently horn
ed animals such as antelope
; these are in the same order as deer and may bear a superficial resemblance. The musk deer
of Asia and water chevrotain (or mouse deer) of tropical African and Asian forests are not usually regarded as true deer and form their own families, Moschidae and Tragulidae
, respectively.
der (Old English dēor) meant a wild animal of any kind. This was as opposed to cattle
, which then meant any sort of domestic livestock that was easy to collect and remove from the land, from the idea of personal-property ownership (rather than real estate
property) and related to modern chattel (property) and capital
. Cognates of Old English dēor in other dead Germanic languages
have the general sense of "animal", such as Old High German
tior, Old Norse
djur or dȳr, Gothic
dius, Old Saxon
dier, and Old Frisian
diar.
This general sense gave way to the modern sense in English, by the end of the Middle English period around 1500. However, all modern Germanic languages save English
and Scots
retain the more general sense: for example, German
Tier, Alemannic
Diere or Tiere, Pennsylvania Dutch
Gedier, Dutch
dier, Afrikaans
dier, Limburgish
diere, Norwegian
dyr, Swedish
djur, Danish
dyr, Icelandic
dýr, Faroese
dýr, West Frisian
dier, and North Frisian
diarten, all of which mean "animal". Contrary to south european language, Dama in latin or daim in french mean "fallow deer" only
For most deer in modern English usage, the male is called a "buck" and the female is a "doe", but the terms vary with dialect, and especially according to the size of the species. For many larger deer the male is a "stag", while for other larger deer the same words are used as for cattle
: "bull" and "cow". The male Red Deer
is a "hart", and the female is a "hind". Terms for young deer vary similarly, with that of most being called a "fawn" and that of the larger species "calf
"; young of the smallest kinds may be a kid. A group of deer of any kind is a "herd". The adjective of relation pertaining to deer is cervine; like the family name "Cervidae", this is from , "deer".
Deer are widely distributed, with indigenous representatives in all continents except Antarctica and Australia, though Africa has only one native species, the Red Deer
, confined to the Atlas Mountains
in the northwest of the continent.
Deer live in a variety of biome
s ranging from tundra
to the tropical rainforest
. While often associated with forests, many deer are ecotone
species that live in transitional areas between forests and thickets (for cover) and prairie and savanna (open space). The majority of large deer species inhabit temperate mixed deciduous forest, mountain mixed coniferous forest, tropical seasonal/dry forest, and savanna habitats around the world. Clearing open areas within forests to some extent may actually benefit deer populations by exposing the understory
and allowing the types of grasses, weeds, and herbs to grow that deer like to eat. Additionally, access to adjacent croplands may also benefit deer. However, adequate forest or brush cover must still be provided for populations to grow and thrive.
Small species of brocket deer
and pudú
s of Central and South America, and muntjac
s of Asia generally occupy dense forests and are less often seen in open spaces, with the possible exception of the Indian Muntjac
. There are also several species of deer that are highly specialized, and live almost exclusively in mountains, grasslands, swamps, and "wet" savannas, or riparian corridors surrounded by deserts. Some deer have a circumpolar distribution in both North America and Eurasia. Examples include the caribou
that live in Arctic tundra and taiga (boreal forests) and moose
that inhabit taiga
and adjacent areas. Huemul Deer (taruca
and Chilean Huemul
) of South America's Andes
fill an ecological niche of the ibex or Wild Goat
, with the fawns behaving more like goat kids.
The highest concentration of large deer species in temperate North America lies in the Canadian Rocky Mountain and Columbia Mountain
regions between Alberta and British Columbia where all five North American deer species (White-tailed deer
, Mule deer
, Caribou
, Elk
, and Moose
) can be found. This region has several clusters of national parks including Mount Revelstoke National Park
, Glacier National Park (Canada)
, Yoho National Park
, and Kootenay National Park
on the British Columbia side, and Banff National Park
, Jasper National Park
, and Glacier National Park (U.S.) on the Alberta and Montana sides. Mountain slope habitats vary from moist coniferous/mixed forested habitats to dry subalpine/pine forests with alpine meadows higher up. The foothills and river valleys between the mountain ranges provide a mosaic of cropland and deciduous parklands. The rare woodland caribou have the most restricted range living at higher altitudes in the subalpine meadows and alpine tundra
areas of some of the mountain ranges. Elk and Mule Deer both migrate between the alpine meadows and lower coniferous forests and tend to be most common in this region. Elk also inhabit river valley bottomlands, which they share with White-tailed deer. The White-tailed deer have recently expanded their range within the foothills and river valley bottoms of the Canadian Rockies owing to conversion of land to cropland and the clearing of coniferous forests allowing more deciduous vegetation to grow up the mountain slopes. They also live in the aspen parklands north of Calgary and Edmonton, where they share habitat with the moose
. The adjacent Great Plains
grassland habitats are left to herds of Elk
, American Bison
, and pronghorn
antelope.
The Eurasia
n Continent (including the Indian Subcontinent) boasts the most species of deer in the world, with most species being found in Asia. Europe, in comparison, has lower diversity in plant and animal species. However, many national parks and protected reserves in Europe do have populations of red deer
, roe deer
, and fallow deer
. These species have long been associated with the continent of Europe, but also inhabit Asia Minor
, the Caucasus Mountains
, and Northwestern Iran
. "European" Fallow Deer historically lived over much of Europe during the Ice Ages, but afterwards became restricted primarily to the Anatolia
n Peninsula, in present-day Turkey
. Present-day Fallow deer populations in Europe are a result of historic man-made introductions of this species first to the Mediterranean regions of Europe, then eventually to the rest of Europe. They were initially park animals that later escaped and reestablished themselves in the wild. Historically, Europe's deer species shared their deciduous forest habitat with other herbivores such as the extinct tarpan (forest horse), extinct aurochs
(forest ox), and the endangered wisent
(European bison). Good places to see deer in Europe include the Scottish Highlands
, the Austrian Alps
, and the wetlands between Austria, Hungary, and Czech Republic. Some fine National Parks include Doñana National Park
in Spain, the Veluwe
in the Netherlands, the Ardennes
in Belgium, and Białowieża National Park of Poland. Spain, Eastern Europe, and the Caucasus Mountains
still have virgin forest areas that are not only home to sizable deer populations but also for other animals that were once abundant such as the wisent
, Eurasian lynx
, Spanish lynx
, wolves, and Brown bear
s.
The highest concentration of large deer species in temperate Asia occurs in the mixed deciduous forests, mountain coniferous forests, and taiga bordering North Korea, Manchuria (Northeastern China), and the Ussuri Region (Russia). These are among some of the richest deciduous and coniferous forests in the world where one can find Siberian roe deer
, sika deer
, elk
, and moose
. Asian caribou occupy the northern fringes of this region along the Sino-Russian border.
Deer such as the sika deer, Thorold's deer
, Central Asian red deer
, and elk have historically been farmed for their antlers by Han Chinese
, Turkic peoples
, Tungusic peoples, Mongolia
ns, and Koreans. Like the Sami people
of Finland and Scandinavia
, the Tungusic peoples, Mongolia
ns, and Turkic peoples
of Southern Siberia, Northern Mongolia, and the Ussuri Region have also taken to raising semi-domesticated herds of Asian Caribou.
The highest concentration of large deer species in the tropics occurs in Southern Asia in Northern India's Indo-Gangetic Plain Region and Nepal's Terai Region. These fertile plains consist of tropical seasonal moist deciduous, dry deciduous forests, and both dry and wet savannas that are home to chital
, hog deer
, barasingha
, Indian sambar, and Indian muntjac
. Grazing species such as the endangered barasingha and very common chital are gregarious and live in large herds. Indian sambar can be gregarious but are usually solitary or live in smaller herds. Hog deer are solitary and have lower densities than Indian muntjac. Deer can be seen in several national parks in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka of which Kanha National Park
, Dudhwa National Park
, and Chitwan National Park are most famous. Sri Lanka's Wilpattu National Park
and Yala National Park
have large herds of Indian sambar and chital. The Indian sambar are more gregarious in Sri Lanka than other parts of their range and tend to form larger herds than elsewhere.
The Chao Praya River Valley of Thailand was once primarily tropical seasonal moist deciduous forest and wet savanna that hosted populations of hog deer, the now-extinct Schomburgk's deer
, the Eld's deer
, Indian sambar, and Indian muntjac. Both the hog deer and Eld's deer are rare, whereas Indian sambar and Indian muntjac thrive in protected national parks such as Khao Yai
.
Many of these South Asian and Southeast Asian deer species also share their habitat with various herbivores such as Asian elephant
s, various Asian rhinoceros species, various antelope species (such as nilgai
, Four-horned antelope
, blackbuck
, and Indian gazelle
in India), and wild oxen (such as wild Asian water buffalo
, gaur
, banteng
, and kouprey
). How different herbivores can survive together in a given area is each species have different food preferences, although there may be some overlap.
Australia has six introduced species
of deer that have established sustainable wild populations from acclimatisation society
releases in the 19th century. These are fallow deer, red deer, sambar, hog deer, rusa, and chital. Red deer introduced into New Zealand in 1851 from English and Scottish stock were domesticated in deer farm
s by the late 1960s and are common farm animals there now. Seven other species of deer were introduced into New Zealand but none are as widespread as red deer.
s, or cud-chewers, and have a four-chambered stomach. The teeth of deer are adapted to feeding on vegetation, and like other ruminants, they lack upper incisor
s, instead having a tough pad at the front of their upper jaw. Some deer, such as those on the island of Rùm
, do consume meat when it is available.
The Chinese water deer, tufted deer, and muntjac
have enlarged upper canine teeth
forming sharp tusks, while other species often lack upper canines altogether. The cheek teeth of deer have crescent ridges of enamel, which enable them to grind a wide variety of vegetation. The dental formula
for deer is:
Nearly all deer have a facial gland in front of each eye. The gland contains a strongly scented pheromone
, used to mark its home range. Bucks of a wide range of species open these glands wide when angry or excited. All deer have a liver
without a gallbladder
. Deer also have a tapetum lucidum
which gives them sufficiently good night vision
.
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Nearly all cervids are so-called uniparental species: the fawns are cared for by the mother only. A doe generally has one or two fawns at a time (triplets, while not unknown, are uncommon). The gestation period
is anywhere up to ten months for the European roe deer. Most fawns are born with their fur covered with white spots, though in many species they lose these spots by the end of their first winter. In the first twenty minutes of a fawn's life, the fawn begins to take its first steps. Its mother licks it clean until it is almost free of scent, so predators will not find it. Its mother leaves often, and the fawn does not like to be left behind. Sometimes its mother must gently push it down with her foot. The fawn stays hidden in the grass for one week until it is strong enough to walk with its mother. The fawn and its mother stay together for about one year. A male usually never sees his mother again, but females sometimes come back with their own fawns and form small herds.
Deer are selective feeders. They are usually browsers, and primarily feed on leaves
. They have small, unspecialized stomach
s by ruminant
standards, and high nutrition requirements. Rather than attempt to digest vast quantities of low-grade, fibrous food as, for example, sheep
and cattle
do, deer select easily digestible shoots, young leaves, fresh grasses
, soft twig
s, fruit
, fungi
, and lichen
s.
s. Sometimes a female will have a small stub. The only female deer with antlers are reindeer (caribou). Antlers grow as highly vascular spongy tissue covered in a skin called velvet. Before the beginning of a species' mating season, the antlers calcify under the velvet and become hard bone. The velvet is then rubbed off leaving dead bone which forms the hard antlers. After the mating season, the pedicle and the antler base are separated by a layer of softer tissue, and the antler falls off.
One way that many hunters are able to track main paths that the deer travel on is because of their "rubs". A rub is used to deposit scent from glands near the eye and forehead and physically mark territory.
During the mating season, bucks use their antlers to fight one another for the opportunity to attract mates in a given herd. The two bucks circle each other, bend back their legs, lower their heads, and charge.
Necropsy research on wild deer that were killed and eaten by wolves shows that deer with asymmetric antlers are weakened by genetic defects and are less likely to escape being caught by predators.
Each species has its own characteristic antler structure – for example white-tailed deer antlers include a series of tines sprouting upward from a forward-curving main beam, while fallow deer and moose antlers are palmate, with a broad central portion. Mule deer and black-tailed deer
), species within the same genus as the white-tailed deer, instead have bifurcated (or branched) antlers—that is, the main beam splits into two, each of which may split into two more. Young males of many deer, and the adults of some species, such as brocket deer
and pudu
s, have antlers which are single spikes.
deer is a deer with a brown and white spotting pattern which is not caused by parasites or diseases. They can appear to be almost entirely white. In addition to the non-standard coloration, other differences have been observed: bowing or Roman nose
, overly arched spine (scoliosis
), long tails, short legs, and underbites.
maintains the largest herd of white deer. White pigmented white-tailed deer began populating the deer population in the area now known as the Conservation Area of the former Seneca Army Depot. The U.S. Army gave the white deer protection while managing the normal colored deer through hunting. The white deer coloration is the result of a recessive gene.
There is a herd of white fallow deer located near Argonne National Laboratories in central Illinois.
date from the Oligocene
of Europe, and resembled the modern muntjac
s. Later species were often larger, with more impressive antlers. They rapidly spread to the other continents, even for a time occupying much of northern Africa, where they are now almost wholly absent. Some extinct deer had huge antlers, larger than those of any living species. Examples include Eucladoceros
, and the giant deer Megaloceros
, whose antlers stretched to 3.5 metres across.
Deer have long had economic significance to humans. Deer meat, for which they are hunted and farmed, is called venison
. Deer organ meat is called humble. See humble pie
.
The Sami of Scandinavia
and the Kola Peninsula
of Russia and other nomadic peoples of northern Asia use reindeer for food, clothing, and transport.
The caribou in North America is not domesticated or herded as is the case of reindeer (the same species), reindeer are often found in colder regions in Europe, but is important as a quarry animal to the Inuit
. Most commercial venison in the United States is imported from New Zealand.
Deer were originally brought to New Zealand
by European settlers, and the deer population rose rapidly. This caused great environmental damage and was controlled by hunting and poisoning until the concept of deer farming developed in the 1960s. Deer farming has advanced into a significant economic activity in New Zealand with more than 3,000 farms running over 1 million deer in total. Deer products are exported to over 50 countries around the world, with New Zealand becoming well recognised as a source of quality venison and co-products.
Automobile collisions with deer can impose a significant cost on the economy. In the U.S., about 1.5 million deer-vehicle collisions occur each year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
. Those accidents cause about 150 human deaths and $1.1 billion in property damage annually. The sight of deer standing motionless, caught in headlights gives rise to the phrase "deer in the headlights".
In some areas of the UK, deer (especially fallow deer
due to their gregarious behaviour), have been implicated as a possible reservoir for transmission of bovine tuberculosis, a disease which in the UK in 2005 cost £90 million in attempts to eradicate. In New Zealand, deer are thought to be important as vectors picking up M. bovis in areas where brushtail possums, (Trichosurus vulpecula), are infected, and transferring it to previously uninfected possums when their carcasses are scavenged elsewhere. The white-tailed deer, (Odocoileus virginianus), has been confirmed as the sole maintenance host in the Michigan outbreak of bovine tuberculosis which remains a significant barrier to the US nationwide eradication of the disease in livestock. In 2008, 733,998 licensed deer hunters harvested approximately 489,922 white-tailed deer in attempts to control the deer population and disease spread. These hunters purchased more than 1.5 million deer harvest tags. The economic value of deer hunting to Michigan’s economy is substantial. For example, in 2006, hunters spent US$507 million hunting white-tailed deer in Michigan.
Deer hunting is a popular activity in the U.S. that generates revenue for states and the federal government from the sales of licenses, permits and tags. The 2006 survey by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that license sales generate approximately $700 million annually. This revenue generally goes to support conservation efforts in the states where the licenses are purchased. Overall, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that big game hunting for deer and elk generates approximately $11.8 billion annually in hunting-related travel, equipment and related expenditures.
, for example, is a New World species but is found only in China and Korea
.
It is thought that the new world group originates from the forests of North America and Siberia
, the old world deer in Asia.
The family Cervidae is organized as follows:
This list is incomplete
; you can help by expanding it.
wrote "Although I do not know of any thoroughly well-authenticated cases of perfectly fertile hybrid animals, I have some reason to believe that the hybrids from Cervulus vaginalis and Reevesii [...] are perfectly fertile." These two varieties of muntjac are currently considered the same species.
A number of deer hybrids are bred to improve meat yield in farmed deer. American elk (or wapiti) and Red Deer from the Old World can produce fertile offspring in captivity, and were once considered one species. Hybrid offspring, however, must be able to escape and defend themselves against predators, and these hybrid offspring are unable to do so in the wild state. Recent DNA
, animal behavior studies, and morphology and antler characteristics have shown there are not one but three species of Red Deer: European red deer, Central Asian red deer
, and American elk. The European elk is a different species and is known as moose
in North America. The hybrids are about 30% more efficient in producing antlers by comparing velvet to body weight. Wapiti have been introduced into some European red deer herds to improve the Red Deer type, but not always with the intended improvement.
In New Zealand, where deer are introduced species, there are hybrid zones between red deer and North American wapiti populations and also between red deer and sika deer populations. In New Zealand, red deer have been artificially hybridized with Pere David deer in order to create a farmed deer which gives birth in spring. The initial hybrids were created by artificial insemination and back-crossed to red deer. However, such hybrid offspring can only survive in captivity free of predators.
In Canada, the farming of European red deer and red deer hybrids is considered a threat to native wapiti. In Britain, the introduced sika deer is considered a threat to native red deer. Initial sika deer/red deer hybrids occur when young sika stags expand their range into established red deer areas and have no sika hinds to mate with. They mate instead with young red hinds and produce fertile hybrids. These hybrids mate with either sika or red deer (depending which species is prevalent in the area), resulting in mongrelization. Many of the sika deer which escaped from British parks were probably already hybrids for this reason. These hybrids do not properly inherit survival strategies and can only survive in either a captive state or when there are no predators.
In captivity, mule deer have been mated to white-tail deer. Both male mule deer/female white-tailed deer and male white-tailed deer/female mule deer matings have produced hybrids. Less than 50% of the hybrid fawns survived their first few months. Hybrids have been reported in the wild but are disadvantaged because they don't properly inherit survival strategies. Mule deer move with bounding leaps (all 4 hooves hit the ground at once, also called "stotting") to escape predators. Stotting is so specialized that only 100% genetically pure mule deer seem able to do it. In captive hybrids, even a one-eighth white-tail/seven-eighths mule deer hybrid has an erratic escape behaviour
and would be unlikely to survive to breeding age. Hybrids do survive on game ranches where both species are kept and where predators are controlled by man.
s also appear as charges
. The old name for deer was simply cerf, and it is chiefly the head which appears on the ancient arms. Examples of deer in heraldry
can be found in the arms of Hertfordshire
, England, and its county town of Hertford
; both are examples of canting arms
.
Several Norwegian municipalities have a stag or stag's head in their arms: Gjemnes
, Hitra
, Hjartdal
, Rendalen
and Voss
. A deer appears on the arms of the Israel
i Postal Authority (see Hebrew
Wikipedia page.
Ruminant
A ruminant is a mammal of the order Artiodactyla that digests plant-based food by initially softening it within the animal's first compartment of the stomach, principally through bacterial actions, then regurgitating the semi-digested mass, now known as cud, and chewing it again...
mammal
Mammal
Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...
s forming the family
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer
White-tailed Deer
The white-tailed deer , also known as the Virginia deer or simply as the whitetail, is a medium-sized deer native to the United States , Canada, Mexico, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru...
, elk
Elk
The Elk is the large deer, also called Cervus canadensis or wapiti, of North America and eastern Asia.Elk may also refer to:Other antlered mammals:...
, moose
Moose
The moose or Eurasian elk is the largest extant species in the deer family. Moose are distinguished by the palmate antlers of the males; other members of the family have antlers with a dendritic configuration...
, red deer
Red Deer
The red deer is one of the largest deer species. Depending on taxonomy, the red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Asia Minor, parts of western Asia, and central Asia. It also inhabits the Atlas Mountains region between Morocco and Tunisia in northwestern Africa, being...
, reindeer
Reindeer
The reindeer , also known as the caribou in North America, is a deer from the Arctic and Subarctic, including both resident and migratory populations. While overall widespread and numerous, some of its subspecies are rare and one has already gone extinct.Reindeer vary considerably in color and size...
, fallow deer
Fallow Deer
The Fallow Deer is a ruminant mammal belonging to the family Cervidae. This common species is native to western Eurasia, but has been introduced widely elsewhere. It often includes the rarer Persian Fallow Deer as a subspecies , while others treat it as an entirely different species The Fallow...
, roe deer
Roe Deer
The European Roe Deer , also known as the Western Roe Deer, chevreuil or just Roe Deer, is a Eurasian species of deer. It is relatively small, reddish and grey-brown, and well-adapted to cold environments. Roe Deer are widespread in Western Europe, from the Mediterranean to Scandinavia, and from...
and chital
Chital
The chital or cheetal , also known as chital deer, spotted deer or axis deer is a deer which commonly inhabits wooded regions of Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and in small numbers in Pakistan...
. Male deer of all species (except the Chinese water deer
Water Deer
The Water Deer is a small deer superficially more similar to a musk deer than a true deer but it is classified as a cervid despite having tusks instead of antlers and other anatomical anomalies. These unique characteristics have caused it to be classified in its own genus...
) and female reindeer grow and shed new antler
Antler
Antlers are the usually large, branching bony appendages on the heads of most deer species.-Etymology:Antler originally meant the lowest tine, the "brow tine"...
s each year. In this they differ from permanently horn
Horn (anatomy)
A horn is a pointed projection of the skin on the head of various animals, consisting of a covering of horn surrounding a core of living bone. True horns are found mainly among the ruminant artiodactyls, in the families Antilocapridae and Bovidae...
ed animals such as antelope
Antelope
Antelope is a term referring to many even-toed ungulate species indigenous to various regions in Africa and Eurasia. Antelopes comprise a miscellaneous group within the family Bovidae, encompassing those old-world species that are neither cattle, sheep, buffalo, bison, nor goats...
; these are in the same order as deer and may bear a superficial resemblance. The musk deer
Musk deer
Musk deer are artiodactyls of the genus Moschus, the only genus of family Moschidae. They are more primitive than the cervids, or true deer, in not having antlers or facial glands, in having only a single pair of teats, and in possessing a gall bladder, a caudal gland, a pair of tusk-like teeth...
of Asia and water chevrotain (or mouse deer) of tropical African and Asian forests are not usually regarded as true deer and form their own families, Moschidae and Tragulidae
Chevrotain
Chevrotains, also known as mouse deer, are small ungulates that make up the family Tragulidae, the only members of the infraorder Tragulina. There are 10 living species in three genera, but there are also several species only known from fossils...
, respectively.
Terminology
The word "deer" was originally broad in meaning, but became more specific over time. In Middle EnglishMiddle English
Middle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....
der (Old English dēor) meant a wild animal of any kind. This was as opposed to cattle
Cattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
, which then meant any sort of domestic livestock that was easy to collect and remove from the land, from the idea of personal-property ownership (rather than real estate
Real estate
In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
property) and related to modern chattel (property) and capital
Financial capital
Financial capital can refer to money used by entrepreneurs and businesses to buy what they need to make their products or provide their services or to that sector of the economy based on its operation, i.e. retail, corporate, investment banking, etc....
. Cognates of Old English dēor in other dead Germanic languages
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanic , which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
have the general sense of "animal", such as Old High German
Old High German
The term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of...
tior, Old Norse
Old Norse
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
djur or dȳr, Gothic
Gothic language
Gothic is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from the Codex Argenteus, a 6th-century copy of a 4th-century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic language with a sizable Text corpus...
dius, Old Saxon
Old Saxon
Old Saxon, also known as Old Low German, is the earliest recorded form of Low German, documented from the 8th century until the 12th century, when it evolved into Middle Low German. It was spoken on the north-west coast of Germany and in the Netherlands by Saxon peoples...
dier, and Old Frisian
Old Frisian
Old Frisian is a West Germanic language spoken between the 8th and 16th centuries in the area between the Rhine and Weser on the European North Sea coast. The Frisian settlers on the coast of South Jutland also spoke Old Frisian but no medieval texts of this area are known...
diar.
This general sense gave way to the modern sense in English, by the end of the Middle English period around 1500. However, all modern Germanic languages save English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and Scots
Scots language
Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...
retain the more general sense: for example, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
Tier, Alemannic
Alemannic German
Alemannic is a group of dialects of the Upper German branch of the Germanic language family. It is spoken by approximately ten million people in six countries: Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, France and Italy...
Diere or Tiere, Pennsylvania Dutch
Pennsylvania Dutch
Pennsylvania Dutch refers to immigrants and their descendants from southwestern Germany and Switzerland who settled in Pennsylvania in the 17th and 18th centuries...
Gedier, Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
dier, Afrikaans
Afrikaans
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...
dier, Limburgish
Limburgish language
Limburgish, also called Limburgian or Limburgic is a group of East Low Franconian language varieties spoken in the Limburg and Rhineland regions, near the common Dutch / Belgian / German border...
diere, Norwegian
Norwegian language
Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
dyr, Swedish
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
djur, Danish
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
dyr, Icelandic
Icelandic language
Icelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...
dýr, Faroese
Faroese language
Faroese , is an Insular Nordic language spoken by 48,000 people in the Faroe Islands and about 25,000 Faroese people in Denmark and elsewhere...
dýr, West Frisian
West Frisian language
West Frisian is a language spoken mostly in the province of Friesland in the north of the Netherlands. West Frisian is the name by which this language is usually known outside the Netherlands, to distinguish it from the closely related Frisian languages of Saterland Frisian and North Frisian,...
dier, and North Frisian
North Frisian language
North Frisian is a minority language of Germany, spoken by about 10,000 people in North Frisia. The language is part of the larger group of the West Germanic Frisian languages.-Classification:...
diarten, all of which mean "animal". Contrary to south european language, Dama in latin or daim in french mean "fallow deer" only
For most deer in modern English usage, the male is called a "buck" and the female is a "doe", but the terms vary with dialect, and especially according to the size of the species. For many larger deer the male is a "stag", while for other larger deer the same words are used as for cattle
Cattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
: "bull" and "cow". The male Red Deer
Red Deer
The red deer is one of the largest deer species. Depending on taxonomy, the red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Asia Minor, parts of western Asia, and central Asia. It also inhabits the Atlas Mountains region between Morocco and Tunisia in northwestern Africa, being...
is a "hart", and the female is a "hind". Terms for young deer vary similarly, with that of most being called a "fawn" and that of the larger species "calf
Calf
Calves are the young of domestic cattle. Calves are reared to become adult cattle, or are slaughtered for their meat, called veal.-Terminology:...
"; young of the smallest kinds may be a kid. A group of deer of any kind is a "herd". The adjective of relation pertaining to deer is cervine; like the family name "Cervidae", this is from , "deer".
Habitat
Red Deer
The red deer is one of the largest deer species. Depending on taxonomy, the red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Asia Minor, parts of western Asia, and central Asia. It also inhabits the Atlas Mountains region between Morocco and Tunisia in northwestern Africa, being...
, confined to the Atlas Mountains
Atlas Mountains
The Atlas Mountains is a mountain range across a northern stretch of Africa extending about through Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. The highest peak is Toubkal, with an elevation of in southwestern Morocco. The Atlas ranges separate the Mediterranean and Atlantic coastlines from the Sahara Desert...
in the northwest of the continent.
Deer live in a variety of biome
Biome
Biomes are climatically and geographically defined as similar climatic conditions on the Earth, such as communities of plants, animals, and soil organisms, and are often referred to as ecosystems. Some parts of the earth have more or less the same kind of abiotic and biotic factors spread over a...
s ranging from tundra
Tundra
In physical geography, tundra is a biome where the tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons. The term tundra comes through Russian тундра from the Kildin Sami word tūndâr "uplands," "treeless mountain tract." There are three types of tundra: Arctic tundra, alpine...
to the tropical rainforest
Tropical rainforest
A tropical rainforest is an ecosystem type that occurs roughly within the latitudes 28 degrees north or south of the equator . This ecosystem experiences high average temperatures and a significant amount of rainfall...
. While often associated with forests, many deer are ecotone
Ecotone
An ecotone is a transition area between two biomes but different patches of the landscape, such as forest and grassland. It may be narrow or wide, and it may be local or regional...
species that live in transitional areas between forests and thickets (for cover) and prairie and savanna (open space). The majority of large deer species inhabit temperate mixed deciduous forest, mountain mixed coniferous forest, tropical seasonal/dry forest, and savanna habitats around the world. Clearing open areas within forests to some extent may actually benefit deer populations by exposing the understory
Understory
Understory is the term for the area of a forest which grows at the lowest height level below the forest canopy. Plants in the understory consist of a mixture of seedlings and saplings of canopy trees together with understory shrubs and herbs...
and allowing the types of grasses, weeds, and herbs to grow that deer like to eat. Additionally, access to adjacent croplands may also benefit deer. However, adequate forest or brush cover must still be provided for populations to grow and thrive.
Small species of brocket deer
Brocket Deer
Brocket deer are the species of deer in the genus Mazama. They are medium to small in size, and are found in the Yucatán Peninsula, Central and South America, and the island of Trinidad. Most species are primarily found in forests. They are superficially similar to the African duikers and the Asian...
and pudú
Pudú
The pudús are two species of South American deer from the genus Pudu; the world's smallest deer. The name is a loanword from Mapudungun the language of the indigenous Mapuche people of southern Chile...
s of Central and South America, and muntjac
Muntjac
Muntjac, also known as Barking Deer and Mastreani Deer, are small deer of the genus Muntiacus. Muntjac are the oldest known deer, appearing 15–35 million years ago, with remains found in Miocene deposits in France, Germany and Poland....
s of Asia generally occupy dense forests and are less often seen in open spaces, with the possible exception of the Indian Muntjac
Indian Muntjac
The Common Muntjac , also called the Red Muntjac, Indian Muntjac or Barking deer is the most numerous muntjac deer species. It has soft, short, brownish or greyish hair, sometimes with creamy markings. This species is omnivorous, feeding on fruits, shoots, seeds, birds' eggs as well as small...
. There are also several species of deer that are highly specialized, and live almost exclusively in mountains, grasslands, swamps, and "wet" savannas, or riparian corridors surrounded by deserts. Some deer have a circumpolar distribution in both North America and Eurasia. Examples include the caribou
Reindeer
The reindeer , also known as the caribou in North America, is a deer from the Arctic and Subarctic, including both resident and migratory populations. While overall widespread and numerous, some of its subspecies are rare and one has already gone extinct.Reindeer vary considerably in color and size...
that live in Arctic tundra and taiga (boreal forests) and moose
Moose
The moose or Eurasian elk is the largest extant species in the deer family. Moose are distinguished by the palmate antlers of the males; other members of the family have antlers with a dendritic configuration...
that inhabit taiga
Taiga
Taiga , also known as the boreal forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests.Taiga is the world's largest terrestrial biome. In North America it covers most of inland Canada and Alaska as well as parts of the extreme northern continental United States and is known as the Northwoods...
and adjacent areas. Huemul Deer (taruca
Taruca
The Taruca , or North Andean Deer, is a species of deer that ranges across the Andes of Peru and Bolivia and the north of Chile and the northwest of Argentina...
and Chilean Huemul
South Andean Deer
The South Andean Deer, Hippocamelus bisulcus, also known as the Huemul , is an endangered species of deer native to the mountains of Argentina and Chile. One of two mid-sized deer of the Hippocamelus genus, the South Andean Deer ranges across the high mountainsides and cold valleys of the Andes...
) of South America's Andes
Andes
The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...
fill an ecological niche of the ibex or Wild Goat
Wild Goat
The wild goat is a widespread species of goat, with a distribution ranging from Europe and Asia Minor to central Asia and the Middle East. It is the ancestor of the domestic goat.-Social structure:...
, with the fawns behaving more like goat kids.
The highest concentration of large deer species in temperate North America lies in the Canadian Rocky Mountain and Columbia Mountain
Columbia Mountains
The Columbia Mountains are a group of mountain ranges located in southeastern British Columbia, and partially in Montana, Idaho and Washington. The mountain range covers 135,952 km² . The range is bounded by the Rocky Mountain Trench on the east, and the Kootenay River on the south; their...
regions between Alberta and British Columbia where all five North American deer species (White-tailed deer
White-tailed Deer
The white-tailed deer , also known as the Virginia deer or simply as the whitetail, is a medium-sized deer native to the United States , Canada, Mexico, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru...
, Mule deer
Mule Deer
The mule deer is a deer indigenous to western North America. The Mule Deer gets its name from its large mule-like ears. There are believed to be several subspecies, including the black-tailed deer...
, Caribou
Reindeer
The reindeer , also known as the caribou in North America, is a deer from the Arctic and Subarctic, including both resident and migratory populations. While overall widespread and numerous, some of its subspecies are rare and one has already gone extinct.Reindeer vary considerably in color and size...
, Elk
Elk
The Elk is the large deer, also called Cervus canadensis or wapiti, of North America and eastern Asia.Elk may also refer to:Other antlered mammals:...
, and Moose
Moose
The moose or Eurasian elk is the largest extant species in the deer family. Moose are distinguished by the palmate antlers of the males; other members of the family have antlers with a dendritic configuration...
) can be found. This region has several clusters of national parks including Mount Revelstoke National Park
Mount Revelstoke National Park
Mount Revelstoke National Park is located adjacent to the city of Revelstoke, British Columbia, Canada. The park is relatively small for a national park, covering 260 square kilometres. It is located in the Selkirk Mountains and was founded in 1914...
, Glacier National Park (Canada)
Glacier National Park (Canada)
Glacier National Park is one of seven national parks in British Columbia, and is part of a system of 43 parks and park reserves across Canada. It protects a portion of the Columbia Mountains. It also contains the Rogers Pass National Historic Site, designated for its importance in the construction...
, Yoho National Park
Yoho National Park
Yoho National Park is located in the Canadian Rocky Mountains along the western slope of the Continental Divide in southeastern British Columbia. Yoho NP is bordered by Kootenay National Park on the southern side and Banff National Park on the eastern side...
, and Kootenay National Park
Kootenay National Park
Kootenay National Park is located in southeastern British Columbia Canada covering in the Canadian Rockies and forms part of a World Heritage Site. The park ranges in elevation from at the south-west park entrance to at Deltaform Mountain...
on the British Columbia side, and Banff National Park
Banff National Park
Banff National Park is Canada's oldest national park, established in 1885 in the Rocky Mountains. The park, located 110–180 kilometres west of Calgary in the province of Alberta, encompasses of mountainous terrain, with numerous glaciers and ice fields, dense coniferous forest, and alpine...
, Jasper National Park
Jasper National Park
Jasper National Park is the largest national park in the Canadian Rockies, spanning 10,878 km² . It is located in the province of Alberta, north of Banff National Park and west of the City of Edmonton. The park includes the glaciers of the Columbia Icefield, hot springs, lakes, waterfalls and...
, and Glacier National Park (U.S.) on the Alberta and Montana sides. Mountain slope habitats vary from moist coniferous/mixed forested habitats to dry subalpine/pine forests with alpine meadows higher up. The foothills and river valleys between the mountain ranges provide a mosaic of cropland and deciduous parklands. The rare woodland caribou have the most restricted range living at higher altitudes in the subalpine meadows and alpine tundra
Alpine tundra
Alpine tundra is a natural region that does not contain trees because it is at high altitude. Alpine tundra is distinguished from arctic tundra, because alpine soils are generally better drained than arctic soils...
areas of some of the mountain ranges. Elk and Mule Deer both migrate between the alpine meadows and lower coniferous forests and tend to be most common in this region. Elk also inhabit river valley bottomlands, which they share with White-tailed deer. The White-tailed deer have recently expanded their range within the foothills and river valley bottoms of the Canadian Rockies owing to conversion of land to cropland and the clearing of coniferous forests allowing more deciduous vegetation to grow up the mountain slopes. They also live in the aspen parklands north of Calgary and Edmonton, where they share habitat with the moose
Moose
The moose or Eurasian elk is the largest extant species in the deer family. Moose are distinguished by the palmate antlers of the males; other members of the family have antlers with a dendritic configuration...
. The adjacent Great Plains
Great Plains
The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...
grassland habitats are left to herds of Elk
Elk
The Elk is the large deer, also called Cervus canadensis or wapiti, of North America and eastern Asia.Elk may also refer to:Other antlered mammals:...
, American Bison
American Bison
The American bison , also commonly known as the American buffalo, is a North American species of bison that once roamed the grasslands of North America in massive herds...
, and pronghorn
Pronghorn
The pronghorn is a species of artiodactyl mammal endemic to interior western and central North America. Though not an antelope, it is often known colloquially in North America as the prong buck, pronghorn antelope, or simply antelope, as it closely resembles the true antelopes of the Old World and...
antelope.
The Eurasia
Eurasia
Eurasia is a continent or supercontinent comprising the traditional continents of Europe and Asia ; covering about 52,990,000 km2 or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres...
n Continent (including the Indian Subcontinent) boasts the most species of deer in the world, with most species being found in Asia. Europe, in comparison, has lower diversity in plant and animal species. However, many national parks and protected reserves in Europe do have populations of red deer
Red Deer
The red deer is one of the largest deer species. Depending on taxonomy, the red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Asia Minor, parts of western Asia, and central Asia. It also inhabits the Atlas Mountains region between Morocco and Tunisia in northwestern Africa, being...
, roe deer
Roe Deer
The European Roe Deer , also known as the Western Roe Deer, chevreuil or just Roe Deer, is a Eurasian species of deer. It is relatively small, reddish and grey-brown, and well-adapted to cold environments. Roe Deer are widespread in Western Europe, from the Mediterranean to Scandinavia, and from...
, and fallow deer
Fallow Deer
The Fallow Deer is a ruminant mammal belonging to the family Cervidae. This common species is native to western Eurasia, but has been introduced widely elsewhere. It often includes the rarer Persian Fallow Deer as a subspecies , while others treat it as an entirely different species The Fallow...
. These species have long been associated with the continent of Europe, but also inhabit Asia Minor
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
, the Caucasus Mountains
Caucasus Mountains
The Caucasus Mountains is a mountain system in Eurasia between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea in the Caucasus region .The Caucasus Mountains includes:* the Greater Caucasus Mountain Range and* the Lesser Caucasus Mountains....
, and Northwestern Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
. "European" Fallow Deer historically lived over much of Europe during the Ice Ages, but afterwards became restricted primarily to the Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
n Peninsula, in present-day Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
. Present-day Fallow deer populations in Europe are a result of historic man-made introductions of this species first to the Mediterranean regions of Europe, then eventually to the rest of Europe. They were initially park animals that later escaped and reestablished themselves in the wild. Historically, Europe's deer species shared their deciduous forest habitat with other herbivores such as the extinct tarpan (forest horse), extinct aurochs
Aurochs
The aurochs , the ancestor of domestic cattle, were a type of large wild cattle which inhabited Europe, Asia and North Africa, but is now extinct; it survived in Europe until 1627....
(forest ox), and the endangered wisent
Wisent
The wisent , Bison bonasus, also known as the European bison or European wood bison, is a species of Eurasian bison. It is the heaviest surviving land animal in Europe; a typical wisent is about long, not counting a tail of long, and tall. Weight typically can range from , with an occasional big...
(European bison). Good places to see deer in Europe include the Scottish Highlands
Scottish Highlands
The Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...
, the Austrian Alps
Alps
The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....
, and the wetlands between Austria, Hungary, and Czech Republic. Some fine National Parks include Doñana National Park
Doñana National Park
-Conservation:In 1989 the surroundings of the national park were given more protection when a buffer zone was declared a natural park under the management of the regional government. The two parks, national and natural, have since been classified as a single natural landscape.In 1994 UNESCO...
in Spain, the Veluwe
Veluwe
The Veluwe is a forest-rich ridge of hills in the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands. The Veluwe features many different landscapes including woodland, heath, some small lakes and Europe's largest sand drifts....
in the Netherlands, the Ardennes
Ardennes
The Ardennes is a region of extensive forests, rolling hills and ridges formed within the Givetian Ardennes mountain range, primarily in Belgium and Luxembourg, but stretching into France , and geologically into the Eifel...
in Belgium, and Białowieża National Park of Poland. Spain, Eastern Europe, and the Caucasus Mountains
Caucasus Mountains
The Caucasus Mountains is a mountain system in Eurasia between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea in the Caucasus region .The Caucasus Mountains includes:* the Greater Caucasus Mountain Range and* the Lesser Caucasus Mountains....
still have virgin forest areas that are not only home to sizable deer populations but also for other animals that were once abundant such as the wisent
Wisent
The wisent , Bison bonasus, also known as the European bison or European wood bison, is a species of Eurasian bison. It is the heaviest surviving land animal in Europe; a typical wisent is about long, not counting a tail of long, and tall. Weight typically can range from , with an occasional big...
, Eurasian lynx
Eurasian Lynx
The Eurasian lynx is a medium-sized cat native to European and Siberian forests, South Asia and East Asia. It is also known as the European lynx, common lynx, the northern lynx, and the Siberian or Russian lynx...
, Spanish lynx
Iberian Lynx
The Iberian lynx, Lynx pardinus, is a critically endangered species native to the Iberian Peninsula in Southern Europe. It is one of the most endangered cat species in the world. According to the conservation group SOS Lynx, if this species died out, it would be one of the few feline extinctions...
, wolves, and Brown bear
Brown Bear
The brown bear is a large bear distributed across much of northern Eurasia and North America. It can weigh from and its largest subspecies, the Kodiak Bear, rivals the polar bear as the largest member of the bear family and as the largest land-based predator.There are several recognized...
s.
The highest concentration of large deer species in temperate Asia occurs in the mixed deciduous forests, mountain coniferous forests, and taiga bordering North Korea, Manchuria (Northeastern China), and the Ussuri Region (Russia). These are among some of the richest deciduous and coniferous forests in the world where one can find Siberian roe deer
Siberian Roe Deer
Capreolus pygargus, also known as the Siberian roe deer or eastern roe deer, is a species of roe deer found in northeastern Asia. In addition to Siberia and Mongolia, it is found in Kazakhstan, the Tian Shan Mountains, Eastern Tibet, the Korean peninsula, and northeastern China...
, sika deer
Sika Deer
The Sika Deer, Cervus nippon, also known as the Spotted Deer or the Japanese Deer, is a species of deer native to much of East Asia and introduced to various other parts of the world...
, elk
Elk
The Elk is the large deer, also called Cervus canadensis or wapiti, of North America and eastern Asia.Elk may also refer to:Other antlered mammals:...
, and moose
Moose
The moose or Eurasian elk is the largest extant species in the deer family. Moose are distinguished by the palmate antlers of the males; other members of the family have antlers with a dendritic configuration...
. Asian caribou occupy the northern fringes of this region along the Sino-Russian border.
Deer such as the sika deer, Thorold's deer
Thorold's Deer
Thorold's deer is a threatened species of deer found in grassland, shrubland and forest at high altitudes in the eastern Tibetan Plateau...
, Central Asian red deer
Central Asian Red Deer
The Central Asian Red Deer is a primordial group of Red deer subspecies, which live in central Asia from the Caspian Sea to western China.Recent DNA studies conducted on hundreds samples from Red Deer and Elk subspecies determined that Red deer and Elk represent two distinct species.The central...
, and elk have historically been farmed for their antlers by Han Chinese
Han Chinese
Han Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and are the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92% of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98% of the population of the Republic of China , 78% of the population of Singapore, and about 20% of the...
, Turkic peoples
Turkic peoples
The Turkic peoples are peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, southern Siberia and northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
, Tungusic peoples, Mongolia
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...
ns, and Koreans. Like the Sami people
Sami people
The Sami people, also spelled Sámi, or Saami, are the arctic indigenous people inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of far northern Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Kola Peninsula of Russia, and the border area between south and middle Sweden and Norway. The Sámi are Europe’s northernmost...
of Finland and Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
, the Tungusic peoples, Mongolia
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...
ns, and Turkic peoples
Turkic peoples
The Turkic peoples are peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, southern Siberia and northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
of Southern Siberia, Northern Mongolia, and the Ussuri Region have also taken to raising semi-domesticated herds of Asian Caribou.
The highest concentration of large deer species in the tropics occurs in Southern Asia in Northern India's Indo-Gangetic Plain Region and Nepal's Terai Region. These fertile plains consist of tropical seasonal moist deciduous, dry deciduous forests, and both dry and wet savannas that are home to chital
Chital
The chital or cheetal , also known as chital deer, spotted deer or axis deer is a deer which commonly inhabits wooded regions of Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and in small numbers in Pakistan...
, hog deer
Hog Deer
The Hog Deer is a small deer whose habitat ranges from Pakistan, through northern India, to mainland southeast Asia...
, barasingha
Barasingha
The Barasingha or Swamp deer is a deer species currently found in isolated localities in north and central India, and southwestern Nepal, and is extinct in Pakistan and Bangladesh....
, Indian sambar, and Indian muntjac
Indian Muntjac
The Common Muntjac , also called the Red Muntjac, Indian Muntjac or Barking deer is the most numerous muntjac deer species. It has soft, short, brownish or greyish hair, sometimes with creamy markings. This species is omnivorous, feeding on fruits, shoots, seeds, birds' eggs as well as small...
. Grazing species such as the endangered barasingha and very common chital are gregarious and live in large herds. Indian sambar can be gregarious but are usually solitary or live in smaller herds. Hog deer are solitary and have lower densities than Indian muntjac. Deer can be seen in several national parks in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka of which Kanha National Park
Kanha National Park
Kanha National Park is a national park and a Tiger Reserve in the Mandla and Balaghat districts of Madhya Pradesh, India. In the 1930s, Kanha area was divided into two sanctuaries, Hallon and Banjar, of 250 and 300 km² . Kanha National Park was created on 1 June, 1955. Today it stretches over an...
, Dudhwa National Park
Dudhwa National Park
Dudhwa National Park is located in the Terai of Uttar Pradesh, India and covers an area of 680 km2 with a buffer area of almost 190 km2. In altitude it ranges from about to . The international border with Nepal forms the northern boundary, and the River Suheli the southern boundary. Its...
, and Chitwan National Park are most famous. Sri Lanka's Wilpattu National Park
Wilpattu National Park
Wilpattu National Park is a park located on the island of Sri Lanka. The unique feature of this park is the existence of "Willus" - Natural, sand-rimmed water basins or depressions that fill with rainwater. Located in the Northwest coast lowland dry zone of Sri Lanka...
and Yala National Park
Yala National Park
Yala National Park is the most visited and second largest national park in Sri Lanka. Actually it consists of five blocks, two of which are now open to the public; and also adjoining parks. The blocks have individual names also, like Ruhuna National Park for the block 1 and Kumana National Park or...
have large herds of Indian sambar and chital. The Indian sambar are more gregarious in Sri Lanka than other parts of their range and tend to form larger herds than elsewhere.
The Chao Praya River Valley of Thailand was once primarily tropical seasonal moist deciduous forest and wet savanna that hosted populations of hog deer, the now-extinct Schomburgk's deer
Schomburgk's Deer
Schomburgk's Deer was a member of the family Cervidae. This deer was endemic to Thailand. Schomburgk's deer was described by Edward Blyth in 1863 and named after Sir Robert H. Schomburgk, who was the British consul in Bangkok from 1857-1864.This deer was a graceful species similar in appearance to...
, the Eld's deer
Eld's Deer
Eld's Deer , also known as the Thamin or Brow-antlered Deer, is an endangered species of deer indigenous to southeastern Asia. The species was first discovered by westerners in Manipur in India in 1839. The original scientific name Cervus eldi was coined in 1844 in honour of Lt. Percy Eld – a...
, Indian sambar, and Indian muntjac. Both the hog deer and Eld's deer are rare, whereas Indian sambar and Indian muntjac thrive in protected national parks such as Khao Yai
Khao Yai National Park
Khao Yai National Park is a national park in Thailand.-Description:Khao Yai National Park is situated in the Sankamphaeng Mountain Range, the southern prolongation of the Dong Phaya Yen Mountains, at the southwestern boundary of the Khorat Plateau....
.
Many of these South Asian and Southeast Asian deer species also share their habitat with various herbivores such as Asian elephant
Asian Elephant
The Asian or Asiatic elephant is the only living species of the genus Elephas and distributed in Southeast Asia from India in the west to Borneo in the east. Three subspecies are recognized — Elephas maximus maximus from Sri Lanka, the Indian elephant or E. m. indicus from mainland Asia, and E. m....
s, various Asian rhinoceros species, various antelope species (such as nilgai
Nilgai
The nilgai , sometimes called nilgau, is an antelope, and is one of the most commonly seen wild animals of central and northern India and eastern Pakistan; it is also present in parts of southern Nepal. The mature males appear ox-like and are also known as blue bulls...
, Four-horned antelope
Four-horned Antelope
The Four-horned Antelope , or Chousingha, is a small antelope found in open forest in India and Nepal. It is the only species currently classified in the genus Tetracerus.-Description:...
, blackbuck
Blackbuck
Blackbuck is a species of antelope native to the Indian subcontinent. Their range decreased sharply during the 20th century. Since 2003, the IUCN lists the species as near threatened....
, and Indian gazelle
Chinkara
The Chinkara is a species of gazelle found in south Asia.-Habitat and Distribution:It lives in grasslands and desert areas in India, Bangladesh and parts of Iran and Pakistan...
in India), and wild oxen (such as wild Asian water buffalo
Wild Asian Water Buffalo
The wild water buffalo also called Asian buffalo and Asiatic buffalo is a large bovine native to Southeast Asia...
, gaur
Gaur
The gaur , also called Indian bison, is a large bovine native to South Asia and Southeast Asia. The species is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 1986 as the population decline in parts of the species' range is likely to be well over 70% over the last three generations...
, banteng
Banteng
The banteng , also known as tembadau, is a species of wild cattle found in Southeast Asia.Banteng have been domesticated in several places in Southeast Asia, and there are around 1.5 million domestic banteng, which are called Bali cattle. These animals are used as working animals and for their meat...
, and kouprey
Kouprey
A kouprey , is a wild, forest-dwelling ox found mainly in northern Cambodia, but also believed to exist in southern Laos, western Vietnam, and eastern Thailand. It was discovered in 1937.Koupreys are very large ungulates, and can approach similar sizes to the wild Asian water buffalo...
). How different herbivores can survive together in a given area is each species have different food preferences, although there may be some overlap.
Australia has six introduced species
Introduced species
An introduced species — or neozoon, alien, exotic, non-indigenous, or non-native species, or simply an introduction, is a species living outside its indigenous or native distributional range, and has arrived in an ecosystem or plant community by human activity, either deliberate or accidental...
of deer that have established sustainable wild populations from acclimatisation society
Acclimatisation society
Acclimatisation societies were societies created in order to enrich the fauna of a region with animals and plants from around the world. The first such society was La Societé Zoologique d'Acclimatation founded in Paris in 1854 by Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. Such societies spread quickly around...
releases in the 19th century. These are fallow deer, red deer, sambar, hog deer, rusa, and chital. Red deer introduced into New Zealand in 1851 from English and Scottish stock were domesticated in deer farm
Deer farm
A deer farm is a fenced piece of land suitable for grazing that is populated with deer raised for the purpose of hunting tourism or as livestock. Similar species such as elk, moose and even reindeer may be farmed in this method as well, sometimes on the same land...
s by the late 1960s and are common farm animals there now. Seven other species of deer were introduced into New Zealand but none are as widespread as red deer.
Biology
Deer weights generally range from 30 to 250 kg (66.1 to 551.2 lb), though the northern pudu averages 10 kilograms (22 lb) and the moose averages 431 kilograms (950.2 lb). They generally have lithe, compact bodies and long, powerful legs suited for rugged woodland terrain. Deer are also excellent jumpers and swimmers. Deer are ruminantRuminant
A ruminant is a mammal of the order Artiodactyla that digests plant-based food by initially softening it within the animal's first compartment of the stomach, principally through bacterial actions, then regurgitating the semi-digested mass, now known as cud, and chewing it again...
s, or cud-chewers, and have a four-chambered stomach. The teeth of deer are adapted to feeding on vegetation, and like other ruminants, they lack upper incisor
Incisor
Incisors are the first kind of tooth in heterodont mammals. They are located in the premaxilla above and mandible below.-Function:...
s, instead having a tough pad at the front of their upper jaw. Some deer, such as those on the island of Rùm
Rùm
Rùm , a Scottish Gaelic name often anglicised to Rum) is one of the Small Isles of the Inner Hebrides, in the district of Lochaber, Scotland...
, do consume meat when it is available.
The Chinese water deer, tufted deer, and muntjac
Muntjac
Muntjac, also known as Barking Deer and Mastreani Deer, are small deer of the genus Muntiacus. Muntjac are the oldest known deer, appearing 15–35 million years ago, with remains found in Miocene deposits in France, Germany and Poland....
have enlarged upper canine teeth
Canine tooth
In mammalian oral anatomy, the canine teeth, also called cuspids, dogteeth, fangs, or eye teeth, are relatively long, pointed teeth...
forming sharp tusks, while other species often lack upper canines altogether. The cheek teeth of deer have crescent ridges of enamel, which enable them to grind a wide variety of vegetation. The dental formula
Dentition
Dentition pertains to the development of teeth and their arrangement in the mouth. In particular, the characteristic arrangement, kind, and number of teeth in a given species at a given age...
for deer is:
Nearly all deer have a facial gland in front of each eye. The gland contains a strongly scented pheromone
Pheromone
A pheromone is a secreted or excreted chemical factor that triggers a social response in members of the same species. Pheromones are chemicals capable of acting outside the body of the secreting individual to impact the behavior of the receiving individual...
, used to mark its home range. Bucks of a wide range of species open these glands wide when angry or excited. All deer have a liver
Liver
The liver is a vital organ present in vertebrates and some other animals. It has a wide range of functions, including detoxification, protein synthesis, and production of biochemicals necessary for digestion...
without a gallbladder
Gallbladder
In vertebrates the gallbladder is a small organ that aids mainly in fat digestion and concentrates bile produced by the liver. In humans the loss of the gallbladder is usually easily tolerated....
. Deer also have a tapetum lucidum
Tapetum lucidum
The tapetum lucidum is a layer of tissue in the eye of many vertebrate animals....
which gives them sufficiently good night vision
Night vision
Night vision is the ability to see in low light conditions. Whether by biological or technological means, night vision is made possible by a combination of two approaches: sufficient spectral range, and sufficient intensity range...
.
Gestation period
For mammals the gestation period is the time in which a fetus develops, beginning with fertilization and ending at birth. The duration of this period varies between species.-Duration:...
is anywhere up to ten months for the European roe deer. Most fawns are born with their fur covered with white spots, though in many species they lose these spots by the end of their first winter. In the first twenty minutes of a fawn's life, the fawn begins to take its first steps. Its mother licks it clean until it is almost free of scent, so predators will not find it. Its mother leaves often, and the fawn does not like to be left behind. Sometimes its mother must gently push it down with her foot. The fawn stays hidden in the grass for one week until it is strong enough to walk with its mother. The fawn and its mother stay together for about one year. A male usually never sees his mother again, but females sometimes come back with their own fawns and form small herds.
Leaf
A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....
. They have small, unspecialized stomach
Stomach
The stomach is a muscular, hollow, dilated part of the alimentary canal which functions as an important organ of the digestive tract in some animals, including vertebrates, echinoderms, insects , and molluscs. It is involved in the second phase of digestion, following mastication .The stomach is...
s by ruminant
Ruminant
A ruminant is a mammal of the order Artiodactyla that digests plant-based food by initially softening it within the animal's first compartment of the stomach, principally through bacterial actions, then regurgitating the semi-digested mass, now known as cud, and chewing it again...
standards, and high nutrition requirements. Rather than attempt to digest vast quantities of low-grade, fibrous food as, for example, sheep
Domestic sheep
Sheep are quadrupedal, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Like all ruminants, sheep are members of the order Artiodactyla, the even-toed ungulates. Although the name "sheep" applies to many species in the genus Ovis, in everyday usage it almost always refers to Ovis aries...
and cattle
Cattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
do, deer select easily digestible shoots, young leaves, fresh grasses
Poaceae
The Poaceae is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of flowering plants. Members of this family are commonly called grasses, although the term "grass" is also applied to plants that are not in the Poaceae lineage, including the rushes and sedges...
, soft twig
Twig
A twig is a small thin terminal branch of a woody plant. Twigs are critically important in identification of trees, shrubs and vines, especially in wintertime. The buds on the twig are an important diagnostic characteristic, as are the abscission scars where the leaves have fallen away...
s, fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
, fungi
Fungus
A fungus is a member of a large group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds , as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, Fungi, which is separate from plants, animals, and bacteria...
, and lichen
Lichen
Lichens are composite organisms consisting of a symbiotic organism composed of a fungus with a photosynthetic partner , usually either a green alga or cyanobacterium...
s.
Antlers
With the exception of the Chinese Water Deer, which have tusks, all male deer have antlerAntler
Antlers are the usually large, branching bony appendages on the heads of most deer species.-Etymology:Antler originally meant the lowest tine, the "brow tine"...
s. Sometimes a female will have a small stub. The only female deer with antlers are reindeer (caribou). Antlers grow as highly vascular spongy tissue covered in a skin called velvet. Before the beginning of a species' mating season, the antlers calcify under the velvet and become hard bone. The velvet is then rubbed off leaving dead bone which forms the hard antlers. After the mating season, the pedicle and the antler base are separated by a layer of softer tissue, and the antler falls off.
During the mating season, bucks use their antlers to fight one another for the opportunity to attract mates in a given herd. The two bucks circle each other, bend back their legs, lower their heads, and charge.
Necropsy research on wild deer that were killed and eaten by wolves shows that deer with asymmetric antlers are weakened by genetic defects and are less likely to escape being caught by predators.
Each species has its own characteristic antler structure – for example white-tailed deer antlers include a series of tines sprouting upward from a forward-curving main beam, while fallow deer and moose antlers are palmate, with a broad central portion. Mule deer and black-tailed deer
Black-tailed Deer
Two forms of black-tailed deer or blacktail deer occupying coastal temperate rainforest on North America's Pacific coast are subspecies of the mule deer. They have sometimes been treated as a species, but virtually all recent authorities maintain they are subspecies...
), species within the same genus as the white-tailed deer, instead have bifurcated (or branched) antlers—that is, the main beam splits into two, each of which may split into two more. Young males of many deer, and the adults of some species, such as brocket deer
Brocket Deer
Brocket deer are the species of deer in the genus Mazama. They are medium to small in size, and are found in the Yucatán Peninsula, Central and South America, and the island of Trinidad. Most species are primarily found in forests. They are superficially similar to the African duikers and the Asian...
and pudu
Pudu
Pudu may refer to:*Pudú, a genus of small deer;*Pudu, Kuala Lumpur, a town;* Pudu , a Buddhist monk in Yuan China, native of Danyang, Zhenjiang. Follower of Mao Ziyuan, propagator of the orthodoxy in the White Lotus teaching....
s, have antlers which are single spikes.
Piebald deer
A piebaldPiebald
A piebald or pied animal is one that has a spotting pattern of large unpigmented, usually white, areas of hair, feathers, or scales and normally pigmented patches, generally black. The colour of the animal's skin underneath its coat is also pigmented under the dark patches and unpigmented under...
deer is a deer with a brown and white spotting pattern which is not caused by parasites or diseases. They can appear to be almost entirely white. In addition to the non-standard coloration, other differences have been observed: bowing or Roman nose
Roman Nose
Roman Nose, a.k.a. Hook Nose , was a Native American of the Northern Cheyenne, and possibly the greatest and most influential warrior during the Plains Indian War of the 1860s...
, overly arched spine (scoliosis
Scoliosis
Scoliosis is a medical condition in which a person's spine is curved from side to side. Although it is a complex three-dimensional deformity, on an X-ray, viewed from the rear, the spine of an individual with scoliosis may look more like an "S" or a "C" than a straight line...
), long tails, short legs, and underbites.
White deer
Seneca County, New YorkSeneca County, New York
As of the census of 2000, there were 33,342 people, 12,630 households, and 8,626 families residing in the county. The population density was 103 people per square mile . There were 14,794 housing units at an average density of 46 per square mile...
maintains the largest herd of white deer. White pigmented white-tailed deer began populating the deer population in the area now known as the Conservation Area of the former Seneca Army Depot. The U.S. Army gave the white deer protection while managing the normal colored deer through hunting. The white deer coloration is the result of a recessive gene.
There is a herd of white fallow deer located near Argonne National Laboratories in central Illinois.
Evolution
The earliest fossil deer including HeteroproxHeteroprox
Heteroprox is an extinct genus of cervid from the Miocene of Europe.- Sources :* Mammoths, Sabertooths, and Hominids by Jordi Agusti and Mauricio Anton...
date from the Oligocene
Oligocene
The Oligocene is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 34 million to 23 million years before the present . As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the period are slightly...
of Europe, and resembled the modern muntjac
Muntjac
Muntjac, also known as Barking Deer and Mastreani Deer, are small deer of the genus Muntiacus. Muntjac are the oldest known deer, appearing 15–35 million years ago, with remains found in Miocene deposits in France, Germany and Poland....
s. Later species were often larger, with more impressive antlers. They rapidly spread to the other continents, even for a time occupying much of northern Africa, where they are now almost wholly absent. Some extinct deer had huge antlers, larger than those of any living species. Examples include Eucladoceros
Eucladoceros
Eucladoceros or bush-antlered deer is an extinct genus of deer whose fossils have been discovered in Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia.-Description:...
, and the giant deer Megaloceros
Megaloceros
The deer of the genus Megaloceros - ; see also Lister - were found throughout Eurasia from the late Pliocene to the Late Pleistocene, and were important herbivores during the Ice Ages. The largest species, M...
, whose antlers stretched to 3.5 metres across.
Economic significance
Venison
Venison is the meat of a game animal, especially a deer but also other animals such as antelope, wild boar, etc.-Etymology:The word derives from the Latin vēnor...
. Deer organ meat is called humble. See humble pie
Humble pie
To eat humble pie, in common usage, is to apologize and face humiliation for a serious error. Humble pie, or umble pie, is also a term for a variety of pastries, originally based on medieval meat tripe pies.- Etymology :...
.
The Sami of Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
and the Kola Peninsula
Kola Peninsula
The Kola Peninsula is a peninsula in the far northwest of Russia. Constituting the bulk of the territory of Murmansk Oblast, it lies almost completely to the north of the Arctic Circle and is washed by the Barents Sea in the north and the White Sea in the east and southeast...
of Russia and other nomadic peoples of northern Asia use reindeer for food, clothing, and transport.
The caribou in North America is not domesticated or herded as is the case of reindeer (the same species), reindeer are often found in colder regions in Europe, but is important as a quarry animal to the Inuit
Inuit
The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada , Denmark , Russia and the United States . Inuit means “the people” in the Inuktitut language...
. Most commercial venison in the United States is imported from New Zealand.
Deer were originally brought to New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
by European settlers, and the deer population rose rapidly. This caused great environmental damage and was controlled by hunting and poisoning until the concept of deer farming developed in the 1960s. Deer farming has advanced into a significant economic activity in New Zealand with more than 3,000 farms running over 1 million deer in total. Deer products are exported to over 50 countries around the world, with New Zealand becoming well recognised as a source of quality venison and co-products.
Automobile collisions with deer can impose a significant cost on the economy. In the U.S., about 1.5 million deer-vehicle collisions occur each year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is an agency of the Executive Branch of the U.S. government, part of the Department of Transportation...
. Those accidents cause about 150 human deaths and $1.1 billion in property damage annually. The sight of deer standing motionless, caught in headlights gives rise to the phrase "deer in the headlights".
In some areas of the UK, deer (especially fallow deer
Fallow Deer
The Fallow Deer is a ruminant mammal belonging to the family Cervidae. This common species is native to western Eurasia, but has been introduced widely elsewhere. It often includes the rarer Persian Fallow Deer as a subspecies , while others treat it as an entirely different species The Fallow...
due to their gregarious behaviour), have been implicated as a possible reservoir for transmission of bovine tuberculosis, a disease which in the UK in 2005 cost £90 million in attempts to eradicate. In New Zealand, deer are thought to be important as vectors picking up M. bovis in areas where brushtail possums, (Trichosurus vulpecula), are infected, and transferring it to previously uninfected possums when their carcasses are scavenged elsewhere. The white-tailed deer, (Odocoileus virginianus), has been confirmed as the sole maintenance host in the Michigan outbreak of bovine tuberculosis which remains a significant barrier to the US nationwide eradication of the disease in livestock. In 2008, 733,998 licensed deer hunters harvested approximately 489,922 white-tailed deer in attempts to control the deer population and disease spread. These hunters purchased more than 1.5 million deer harvest tags. The economic value of deer hunting to Michigan’s economy is substantial. For example, in 2006, hunters spent US$507 million hunting white-tailed deer in Michigan.
Deer hunting is a popular activity in the U.S. that generates revenue for states and the federal government from the sales of licenses, permits and tags. The 2006 survey by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that license sales generate approximately $700 million annually. This revenue generally goes to support conservation efforts in the states where the licenses are purchased. Overall, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that big game hunting for deer and elk generates approximately $11.8 billion annually in hunting-related travel, equipment and related expenditures.
Taxonomy
Note that the terms indicate the origin of the groups, not their modern distribution: the water deerWater Deer
The Water Deer is a small deer superficially more similar to a musk deer than a true deer but it is classified as a cervid despite having tusks instead of antlers and other anatomical anomalies. These unique characteristics have caused it to be classified in its own genus...
, for example, is a New World species but is found only in China and Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
.
It is thought that the new world group originates from the forests of North America and Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
, the old world deer in Asia.
Extant subfamilies, genera and species
The deer family has roughly 62 species; The list is based on the studies of Randi, Mucci, Claro-Hergueta, Bonnet and Douzery (2001); Pitraa, Fickela, Meijaard, Groves (2004); Ludt, Schroeder, Rottmann and Kuehn (2004); Hernandez-Fernandez and Vrba (2005); Groves (2006); Ruiz-Garcia, M., Randi, E., Martinez-Aguero, M. and Alvarez D. (2007); Duarte, J.M.B., Gonzalez, S. and Maldonado, J.E. (2008)The family Cervidae is organized as follows:
- Subfamily CervinaeCervinaeCervinae or the Old World deer , is a subfamily of deer. Alternatively, they're known as the Plesiometacarpal deer, due to their ankle structure being different from the Telemetecarpal deer of Capreolinae-Classification and Species:The list is based on the studies of Randi, Mucci, Claro-Hergueta,...
(Old World (Plesiometacarpal) Deer)
-
- Tribe MuntiaciniMuntjacMuntjac, also known as Barking Deer and Mastreani Deer, are small deer of the genus Muntiacus. Muntjac are the oldest known deer, appearing 15–35 million years ago, with remains found in Miocene deposits in France, Germany and Poland....
(Muntjacs)- Genus Muntiacus
- Southern Red Muntjac or Indian Muntjac (Muntiacus muntjak)
- Reeves's MuntjacReeves's MuntjacThe Reeves' Muntjac is a muntjac species found widely in southeastern China and in Taiwan. They have also been introduced in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Ireland by 2008. It feeds on herbs, blossoms, succulent shoots, grasses and nuts, and was also reported to eat trees...
or Chinese Muntjac (Muntiacus reevesi) - Hairy-fronted MuntjacHairy-fronted muntjacThe Hairy-fronted Muntjac or Black Muntjac is found in Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi and Fujian in South China, also reported in northern Myanmar and Southern Tibet. Although extremely difficult to study because of its shyness, it is considered to be endangered, possibly down to as few as 5-10,000...
or Black Muntjac (Muntiacus crinifrons) - Fea's MuntjacFea's muntjacThe Fea's Muntjac or Tenasserim muntjac is a rare species of muntjac native to People's Republic of China, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam...
(Muntiacus feae) - Bornean Yellow MuntjacBornean yellow muntjacThe Bornean yellow muntjac is restricted to the moist forests of Borneo where it lives alongside the common muntjac. It is similar to its much more common cousin and was only recently recognised as a separate species. Apart from the color difference, its antlers, which are just in length, are...
(Muntiacus atherodes) - Roosevelt's muntjacRoosevelt's muntjacA single specimen of the Roosevelt's Muntjac or Roosevelt's barking deer was presented to the Field Museum in 1929 following a hunting expedition led by Theodore and Kermit Roosevelt. The specimen is slightly smaller than the common muntjac and DNA testing has shown it to be distinct from...
(Muntiacus rooseveltorum) - Gongshan muntjacGongshan muntjacThe Gongshan muntjac was recently identified by Chinese scientists as a new species of muntjac, a type of deer, living in the Gongshan mountains in northwestern Yunnan, southeast Tibet and northern Myanmar...
(Muntiacus gongshanensis) - Giant MuntjacGiant muntjacThe Giant Muntjac sometimes referred to as the Large-Antlered Muntjac is a species of muntjac deer. It is the largest muntjac species and was discovered in 1994 in Vu Quang, Ha Tinh province of Vietnam and in central Laos...
(Muntiacus vuquangensis) - Truong Son MuntjacTruong Son muntjacTruong Son Muntjac or Annamite Muntjac is a species of muntjac deer. It is one of the smallest muntjac species, at about 15 kg, half the size of the Indian Muntjac...
(Muntiacus truongsonensis) - Leaf MuntjacLeaf muntjacThe leaf muntjac, leaf deer or Putao muntjac is a small species of muntjac. It was discovered in 1997 by biologist Alan Rabinowitz during his field study in the isolated Naungmung Township in Myanmar...
(Muntiacus putaoensis) - Sumatran MuntjacSumatran MuntjacThe Sumatran Muntjac is a deer which can be the size of a large dog. The Sumatran muntjac was discovered in 1914, but had not been sighted since 1930, until one was snared and freed from a hunter's snare in Kerinci Seblat National Park, Sumatra, Indonesia in 2002. Two other Sumatran muntjac have...
(Muntiacus montanum) - Pu Hoat MuntjacPu Hoat MuntjacThe Pu Hoat Muntjac is a newly discovered species of muntjac only known from Pu Hoat region in Vietnam, which is bordering Laos. It is sometimes considered to be conspecific with the Roosevelt's Muntjac, and its habitat and behavior are likely to be similar.-Reference:*...
(Muntiacus puhoatensis)
- Genus Elaphodus
- Tufted DeerTufted DeerThe Tufted Deer is a small species of deer characterized by its prominent tuft of black hair on its forehead. It is a close relative of the muntjac, living somewhat further north over a wide area of central China and northeastern Myanmar. Although suffering from overhunting and habitat loss, this...
(Elaphodus cephalophus)
- Tufted Deer
- Genus Muntiacus
- Tribe Cervini ("True" Deer)
- Genus Dama
- Fallow DeerFallow DeerThe Fallow Deer is a ruminant mammal belonging to the family Cervidae. This common species is native to western Eurasia, but has been introduced widely elsewhere. It often includes the rarer Persian Fallow Deer as a subspecies , while others treat it as an entirely different species The Fallow...
(Dama dama) - Persian Fallow DeerPersian fallow deerThe Persian Fallow Deer is a rare ruminant mammal belonging to the family Cervidae. Its taxonomic status is disputed, with some maintaining it as a subspecies of the Fallow Deer, while other treat it as a separate species, Dama mesopotamica.-Description:Persian fallow deer are bigger than Fallow...
(Dama mesopotamica)
- Fallow Deer
- Genus AxisChitalThe chital or cheetal , also known as chital deer, spotted deer or axis deer is a deer which commonly inhabits wooded regions of Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and in small numbers in Pakistan...
- ChitalChitalThe chital or cheetal , also known as chital deer, spotted deer or axis deer is a deer which commonly inhabits wooded regions of Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and in small numbers in Pakistan...
or Axis deer (Axis axis)
- Chital
- Genus RucervusRucervusRucervus is a genus of deer from India, Nepal, Indochina, and the Chinese island Hainan. They are threatened by habitat loss and hunting, and one species has already gone extinct....
- BarasinghaBarasinghaThe Barasingha or Swamp deer is a deer species currently found in isolated localities in north and central India, and southwestern Nepal, and is extinct in Pakistan and Bangladesh....
(Rucervus duvaucelii)
- Barasingha
- Genus PanoliaEld's DeerEld's Deer , also known as the Thamin or Brow-antlered Deer, is an endangered species of deer indigenous to southeastern Asia. The species was first discovered by westerners in Manipur in India in 1839. The original scientific name Cervus eldi was coined in 1844 in honour of Lt. Percy Eld – a...
- Eld's DeerEld's DeerEld's Deer , also known as the Thamin or Brow-antlered Deer, is an endangered species of deer indigenous to southeastern Asia. The species was first discovered by westerners in Manipur in India in 1839. The original scientific name Cervus eldi was coined in 1844 in honour of Lt. Percy Eld – a...
(Panolia eldii)
- Eld's Deer
- Genus Elaphurus
- Père David's DeerPère David's DeerPère David's Deer, Elaphurus davidianus, also known as the Milu , is a species of deer known only in captivity. It prefers marshland, and is believed to be native to the subtropics of China. It grazes on a mixture of grass and water plants. It is the only extant member of the genus Elaphurus...
(Elaphurus davidianus)
- Père David's Deer
- Genus HyelaphusHyelaphusOriginally considered a subgenus of the genus Axis, genetic evidence indicates that the two subgenera are not closely related, and the members of Hyelaphus leaving Axis as a genus that only contains the Chital, as the hog deer are closer to members of the genus Rusa...
- Hog DeerHog DeerThe Hog Deer is a small deer whose habitat ranges from Pakistan, through northern India, to mainland southeast Asia...
(Hyelaphus porcinus) - Calamian DeerCalamian DeerThe Calamian Deer, Hyelaphus calamianensis, also known as Calamian Hog Deer, is an endangered species of deer found only in the Calamian Group of Islands of Palawan province of the Philippines...
(Hyelaphus calamianensis) - Bawean DeerBawean DeerThe Bawean deer, Hyelaphus kuhlii, also known as Kuhl's hog deer or Bawean hog deer, is a highly threatened species of deer found only in the island of Bawean in Indonesia....
(Hyelaphus kuhlii)
- Hog Deer
- Genus RusaRusa (genus)Rusa is a genus of deer from southern Asia. They have traditionally been included in Cervus, and genetic evidence suggests this may be more appropriate than their present placement in a separate genus....
- Sambar (Rusa unicolor)
- Sunda Sambar or Rusa Deer (Rusa timorensis)
- Philippine Sambar (Rusa mariannus)
- Philippine Spotted Deer or Visayan Spotted Deer (Rusa alfredi)
- Genus CervusCervusCervus is a genus of deer that primarily are native to Eurasia, although one species occurs in northern Africa and another in North America. In addition to the species presently placed in this genus, it has included a whole range of other species now commonly placed in other genera, but some of...
- Red DeerRed DeerThe red deer is one of the largest deer species. Depending on taxonomy, the red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Asia Minor, parts of western Asia, and central Asia. It also inhabits the Atlas Mountains region between Morocco and Tunisia in northwestern Africa, being...
(Cervus elaphus) - Corsican Red DeerCorsican Red DeerCorsican Red Deer , also known simply as Corsican or Sardinian Deer, is a subspecies of the Red Deer , endemic to the Mediterranean islands of Sardinia, Italy and Corsica, France....
(Cervus corsicanus) - Yarkand DeerYarkand deerThe Yarkand deer is a subspecies of Red Deer that is native to central Asia. It is similar in ecology to the Bactrian deer in occupying lowland riparian corridors surrounded by deserts...
(Cervus yarkandensis) - Bactrian DeerBactrian deerThe Bactrian deer , also called the Bukhara deer, Bokhara deer or Bactrian wapiti, is a lowland subspecies of Red Deer that is native to central Asia. It is similar in ecology to the Yarkand deer in occupying riparian corridors surrounded by deserts...
(Cervus bactrianus) - Kashmir StagKashmir stagThe Kashmir stag , also called hangul, is a subspecies of Red Deer native to northern Pakistan and India, especially in Jammu and Kashmir where it is the state animal.-Description:...
(Cervus hanglu) - Maral Deer (Cervus maral)
- Tibetan Wapiti (Cervus wallichi)
- Sichuan Wapiti (Cervus macneilli)
- Manchurian WapitiManchurian wapitiThe Manchurian wapiti is a subspecies of elk, native to eastern Asia.-Description:This deer is reddish brown during summer, and brownish gray in winter. It has dark hairs on the neck and dark underparts, followed by a light-colored rump patch...
(Cervus xanthopygus) - American WapitiElkThe Elk is the large deer, also called Cervus canadensis or wapiti, of North America and eastern Asia.Elk may also refer to:Other antlered mammals:...
(Cervus canadensis) - Sika DeerSika DeerThe Sika Deer, Cervus nippon, also known as the Spotted Deer or the Japanese Deer, is a species of deer native to much of East Asia and introduced to various other parts of the world...
(Cervus nippon) - Thorold's DeerThorold's DeerThorold's deer is a threatened species of deer found in grassland, shrubland and forest at high altitudes in the eastern Tibetan Plateau...
(Cervus albirostris)
- Red Deer
- Genus Dama
- Tribe Muntiacini
- Subfamily CapreolinaeCapreolinaeCapreolinae, also known as Odocoileinae or the New World deer , is a subfamily of deer...
(New World (Telemetecarpal) Deer)
-
- Tribe Capreolini
- Genus Alces
- MooseMooseThe moose or Eurasian elk is the largest extant species in the deer family. Moose are distinguished by the palmate antlers of the males; other members of the family have antlers with a dendritic configuration...
(Alces alces; called "Elk" outside North America) (largest deer in the world)
- Moose
- Genus Capreolus
- European Roe DeerRoe DeerThe European Roe Deer , also known as the Western Roe Deer, chevreuil or just Roe Deer, is a Eurasian species of deer. It is relatively small, reddish and grey-brown, and well-adapted to cold environments. Roe Deer are widespread in Western Europe, from the Mediterranean to Scandinavia, and from...
(Capreolus capreolus) - Siberian Roe DeerSiberian Roe DeerCapreolus pygargus, also known as the Siberian roe deer or eastern roe deer, is a species of roe deer found in northeastern Asia. In addition to Siberia and Mongolia, it is found in Kazakhstan, the Tian Shan Mountains, Eastern Tibet, the Korean peninsula, and northeastern China...
(Capreolus pygargus)
- European Roe Deer
- Genus Hydropotes
- Chinese water deerWater DeerThe Water Deer is a small deer superficially more similar to a musk deer than a true deer but it is classified as a cervid despite having tusks instead of antlers and other anatomical anomalies. These unique characteristics have caused it to be classified in its own genus...
(Hydropotes inermis)
- Chinese water deer
- Genus Alces
- Tribe Rangiferini (Reindeer and New World Deer)
- Genus Rangifer
- Caribou/ReindeerReindeerThe reindeer , also known as the caribou in North America, is a deer from the Arctic and Subarctic, including both resident and migratory populations. While overall widespread and numerous, some of its subspecies are rare and one has already gone extinct.Reindeer vary considerably in color and size...
(Rangifer tarandus)
- Caribou/Reindeer
- Genus Hippocamelus
- TarucaTarucaThe Taruca , or North Andean Deer, is a species of deer that ranges across the Andes of Peru and Bolivia and the north of Chile and the northwest of Argentina...
or North Andean Deer (Hippocamelus antisensis) - Chilean Huemul or South Andean DeerSouth Andean DeerThe South Andean Deer, Hippocamelus bisulcus, also known as the Huemul , is an endangered species of deer native to the mountains of Argentina and Chile. One of two mid-sized deer of the Hippocamelus genus, the South Andean Deer ranges across the high mountainsides and cold valleys of the Andes...
(Hippocamelus bisulcus)
- Taruca
- Genus MazamaBrocket DeerBrocket deer are the species of deer in the genus Mazama. They are medium to small in size, and are found in the Yucatán Peninsula, Central and South America, and the island of Trinidad. Most species are primarily found in forests. They are superficially similar to the African duikers and the Asian...
- Red BrocketRed BrocketThe Red Brocket , is a species of brocket deer from forests in South America, ranging from northern Argentina to Colombia and the Guianas...
(Mazama americana) (This species has found to be more closer to OdocoileusOdocoileusOdocoileus is a genus of medium-sized deer containing two species native to the Americas. The name is sometimes spelt odocoeleus; it is from a contraction of the roots odonto- and coelus meaning "hollow-tooth".-Species:...
than other brockets) - Small Red BrocketSmall Red BrocketThe Small Red Brocket is a small species of deer in the Cervidae family. It is endemic to Atlantic Forest in Paraná and São Paulo in southeastern Brazil. This species, which only was scientifically described in 1996, is threatened by habitat loss. Though its size and structure most resemble that...
or Bororo (Mazama bororo) - Merida BrocketMerida BrocketThe Mérida Brocket , also known as the Merioa Brocket or Rufous Brocket, is a small species of deer. It is found in forest and páramo at altitudes of in the Andes of northern Colombia and western Venezuela...
(Mazama bricenii) - Dwarf BrocketDwarf BrocketThe Dwarf Brocket , or Chunyi, is a small species of deer native to the Andean highlands in western Bolivia and south-eastern Peru, where found in forest and páramo. Its pelage is redddish-brown with dark grey foreparts and neck. The underparts are lighter brown, and the muzzle short and thick...
(Mazama chunyi) - Gray BrocketGray BrocketThe Gray Brocket , also known as the brown brocket, is a species of brocket deer from northern Argentina, Bolivia, eastern and southern Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. It formerly included the Amazonian Brown Brocket and sometimes also the Yucatan Brown Brocket as subspecies...
(Mazama gouazoubira) - Pygmy BrocketPygmy BrocketThe Pygmy Brocket, Mazama nana, is a brocket deer species from South America. It is found in Argentina, southern Brazil and Paraguay. It is a small deer with short legs, weighing . It is reddish-brown in color....
(Mazama nana) - Amazonian Brown BrocketAmazonian brown brocketThe Amazonian brown brocket , also known as the small brown brocket, is a small species of deer that is almost entirely restricted to South America. It is known from Panama The Amazonian brown brocket (Mazama nemorivaga), also known as the small brown brocket, is a small species of deer that is...
(Mazama nemorivaga) - Yucatan Brown BrocketYucatan Brown BrocketThe Yucatan Brown Brocket is a small species of deer native to the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, Belize and Guatemala. While it is found in humid tropical forest like most other brocket deer, the Yucatan Brown Brocket also ranges across arid, relatively open habitats...
(Mazama pandora) - Little Red BrocketLittle Red BrocketThe Little Red Brocket , also known as the Ecuador Red Brocket, is a small, little-studied deer native to the Andes of Colombia, Ecuador and northern Peru, where found in forest and páramo at altitudes between . It is one of the smallest brocket deer. The coat is reddish, and the legs and crown are...
(Mazama rufina) - Central American Red BrocketCentral American red brocketThe Central American red brocket, Mazama temama, is a species of brocket deer ranging from southern Mexico, through Central America, to northwestern Colombia. It was formerly treated as a subspecies of the red brocket from South America, but its karyotype has 2n = 50, while the latter's was...
(Mazama temama)
- Red Brocket
- Genus Blastocerus
- Marsh DeerMarsh DeerThe Marsh Deer, Blastocerus dichotomus , is the largest deer species from South America reaching a length of and a height of at the rump. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay...
(Blastocerus dichotomus)
- Marsh Deer
- Genus Ozotoceros
- Pampas deerPampas DeerPampas deer, Ozotoceros bezoarticus, live in the grasslands of South America at low elevations. They are also known as Venado or Gama. Their habitat includes water and hills, often with winter drought, and grass that is high enough to cover a standing deer...
(Ozotoceros bezoarticus)
- Pampas deer
- Genus Pudu
- Northern Pudú (Pudu mephistophiles) (smallest deer in the world)
- Southern Pudú (Pudu pudu)
- Genus OdocoileusOdocoileusOdocoileus is a genus of medium-sized deer containing two species native to the Americas. The name is sometimes spelt odocoeleus; it is from a contraction of the roots odonto- and coelus meaning "hollow-tooth".-Species:...
- White-tailed deerWhite-tailed DeerThe white-tailed deer , also known as the Virginia deer or simply as the whitetail, is a medium-sized deer native to the United States , Canada, Mexico, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru...
(Odocoileus virginianus)- Key deerKey DeerThe Key Deer is an endangered deer that lives only in the Florida Keys. It is a subspecies of the White-tailed deer .-Physical description and behavior:...
(Odocoileus virginianus clavium)
- Key deer
- Mule deerMule DeerThe mule deer is a deer indigenous to western North America. The Mule Deer gets its name from its large mule-like ears. There are believed to be several subspecies, including the black-tailed deer...
, or Black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus)
- White-tailed deer
- Genus Rangifer
- Tribe Capreolini
Extinct subfamilies, genera and species
The following is the classification of extinct cervids only, as well as including living lineages that have some species known from the fossil record or that have become extinct.This list is incomplete
Incomplete
Incomplete may refer to:* A piece of work that is not finished* Gödel's incompleteness theorems, a specification of logic* Incomplete * "Incomplete" , a track from the album Stranger Than Fiction by Bad Religion...
; you can help by expanding it.
- Subfamily Procervulinae
- Genus Procervulus
- Subfamily CervinaeCervinaeCervinae or the Old World deer , is a subfamily of deer. Alternatively, they're known as the Plesiometacarpal deer, due to their ankle structure being different from the Telemetecarpal deer of Capreolinae-Classification and Species:The list is based on the studies of Randi, Mucci, Claro-Hergueta,...
(Old World (Plesiometacarpal) Deer)
-
- Tribe MuntiaciniMuntjacMuntjac, also known as Barking Deer and Mastreani Deer, are small deer of the genus Muntiacus. Muntjac are the oldest known deer, appearing 15–35 million years ago, with remains found in Miocene deposits in France, Germany and Poland....
(Muntjacs)- Genus DicrocerusDicrocerusDicrocerus elegans is an extinct species of deer found in France, Europe . Dicrocerus probably came from Asia, from the region where true deer is believed to have originated and evolved. It inhabited forests in the temperate belt and in Europe it was typical of the Miocene...
- Dicrocerus elegans
- Dicrocerus furcatus
- Dicrocerus necatus
- Dicrocerus teres
- Dicrocerus trilateralis
- Genus Euprox
- Euprox robustus
- Euprox dicranocerus
- Euprox fulcatus
- Genus Stephanocemas
- Stephanocemas colberti
- Stephanocemas colbert
- Stephanocemas thomsoni
- Stephanocemas elegantulus
- Stephanocemas chinghaiensis
- Stephanocemas triacuminatus
- Genus Paracervulus
- Paracervulus australis
- Genus MuntiacusMuntjacMuntjac, also known as Barking Deer and Mastreani Deer, are small deer of the genus Muntiacus. Muntjac are the oldest known deer, appearing 15–35 million years ago, with remains found in Miocene deposits in France, Germany and Poland....
- Muntiacus leilaoensis
- Muntiacus polonicus
- Muntiacus pliocaenicus
- Genus Dicrocerus
- Tribe Cervini ("True" Deer)
- Genus Pseudodama
- Genus Pliocervus
- Genus Dama
- Dama clactoniana
- Dama carburangelensis
- Genus Arvernoceros
- Arvernoceros verestchagini
- Arvernoceros ardei
- Genus EucladocerosEucladocerosEucladoceros or bush-antlered deer is an extinct genus of deer whose fossils have been discovered in Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia.-Description:...
- Eucladoceros tetraceros
- Genus Neomegaloceros
- Genus OrchonocerosMegalocerosThe deer of the genus Megaloceros - ; see also Lister - were found throughout Eurasia from the late Pliocene to the Late Pleistocene, and were important herbivores during the Ice Ages. The largest species, M...
(sometimes considered a subgenus as Megaloceros) - Genus PraemegacerosMegalocerosThe deer of the genus Megaloceros - ; see also Lister - were found throughout Eurasia from the late Pliocene to the Late Pleistocene, and were important herbivores during the Ice Ages. The largest species, M...
(sometimes considered a subgenus as Megaloceros)- Praemegaceros obscurus
- Praemegaceros dawkinsi
- Praemegaceros savini
- Praemegaceros verticornis
- Praemegaceros cazioti
- Genus CandiacervusCandiacervusCandiacervus was a genus of deer native to Pleistocene Crete. Their most notable feature, besides their peculiar, spatula-shaped antlers, was their small stature: the smallest species, C. ropalophorus, stood about 40 cm at the shoulders when fully grown, as can be inferred from a mounted...
(sometimes considered a subgenus as Megaloceros or synonym of Praemegaceros; Possibly polyphyletic)- Candiacervus rethymnensis
- Candiacervus major
- Candiacervus dorothensis
- Candiacervus ropalophorus
- Candiacervus cretensisCretan Dwarf MegacerineThe Cretan Dwarf Megacerine, scientifically known as Candiacervus cretensis, or Megaloceros cretensis, is an extinct species of deer from the late Pleistocene of the island of Crete, Greece. In life, it would have been about high at the withers....
- Genus Cervavitus (?subgenus as Megaloceros)
- Genus PraesinomegacerosMegalocerosThe deer of the genus Megaloceros - ; see also Lister - were found throughout Eurasia from the late Pliocene to the Late Pleistocene, and were important herbivores during the Ice Ages. The largest species, M...
(sometimes considered a subgenus as Megaloceros)- Praesinomegaceros venustus
- Praesinomegaceros asiaticus
- SinomegacerosMegalocerosThe deer of the genus Megaloceros - ; see also Lister - were found throughout Eurasia from the late Pliocene to the Late Pleistocene, and were important herbivores during the Ice Ages. The largest species, M...
(sometimes considered a subgenus as Megaloceros)- Sinomegaceros luochuanensis
- Sinomegaceros pachyosteus
- Genus MegalocerosMegalocerosThe deer of the genus Megaloceros - ; see also Lister - were found throughout Eurasia from the late Pliocene to the Late Pleistocene, and were important herbivores during the Ice Ages. The largest species, M...
- Megaloceros antecedens
- Megaloceros giganteusIrish ElkThe Irish Elk or Giant Deer , was a species of Megaloceros and one of the largest deer that ever lived. Its range extended across Eurasia, from Ireland to east of Lake Baikal, during the Late Pleistocene. The latest known remains of the species have been carbon dated to about 7,700 years ago...
- Genus Pselcupsoceros
- Genus Allocaenelaphus
- Genus Nesoleipoceros
- Genus AxisChitalThe chital or cheetal , also known as chital deer, spotted deer or axis deer is a deer which commonly inhabits wooded regions of Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and in small numbers in Pakistan...
- Axis nesti
- Axis eurygonos
- Genus RucervusRucervusRucervus is a genus of deer from India, Nepal, Indochina, and the Chinese island Hainan. They are threatened by habitat loss and hunting, and one species has already gone extinct....
- Schomburgk's DeerSchomburgk's DeerSchomburgk's Deer was a member of the family Cervidae. This deer was endemic to Thailand. Schomburgk's deer was described by Edward Blyth in 1863 and named after Sir Robert H. Schomburgk, who was the British consul in Bangkok from 1857-1864.This deer was a graceful species similar in appearance to...
(Rucervus schomburgki)
- Schomburgk's Deer
- Genus ElaphurusPère David's DeerPère David's Deer, Elaphurus davidianus, also known as the Milu , is a species of deer known only in captivity. It prefers marshland, and is believed to be native to the subtropics of China. It grazes on a mixture of grass and water plants. It is the only extant member of the genus Elaphurus...
- Elaphurus formosanus
- Elaphurus meziesianus
- Elaphurus bifurcatus
- Elaphurus shikamai
- Genus Croizetoceros
- Croizetoceros ramosus
- Genus CervusCervusCervus is a genus of deer that primarily are native to Eurasia, although one species occurs in northern Africa and another in North America. In addition to the species presently placed in this genus, it has included a whole range of other species now commonly placed in other genera, but some of...
- Cervus ertborni
- Cervus falconeri
- Cervus giganteus
- Cervus rhenanus
- Tribe Muntiacini
- Subfamily CapreolinaeCapreolinaeCapreolinae, also known as Odocoileinae or the New World deer , is a subfamily of deer...
(New World (Telemetecarpal) Deer)
-
- Tribe Capreolini
- Genus Pseudalces
- Pseudalces mirandus
- Genus LibralcesLibralcesLibralces was a genus of Eurasian deer that lived during the Pliocene period. The genus' main claim to fame are their 2+ meter wide antlers, comparable in size with those of Megaloceros...
(?=Cervalces or Alces)- Libralces gallicus
- Libralces reynoldsi
- Genus Cervalces (?= Alces)
- Cervalces latifrons
- Cervalces scotti
- Genus Bretzia
- Bretzia pseudalces
- Bretzia nebrascensis
- Genus Procapreolus
- Procapreolus cusanus
- Procapreolus moldavicus
- Procapreolus stenos
- Procapreolus ucrainicus
- Procapreolus wenzensis
- Genus CapreolusCapreolusCapreolus is a genus of deer with at least two extant species:* Capreolus capreolus * Capreolus pygargus...
- Capreolus constantini
- Capreolus suessenbornensis
- Genus Pseudalces
- Tribe Rangiferini
- Genus Torontoceros
- Torontoceros hypocaeus
- Genus Eocoileus
- Eocoileus gentryorum
- Genus BlastocerusMarsh DeerThe Marsh Deer, Blastocerus dichotomus , is the largest deer species from South America reaching a length of and a height of at the rump. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay...
- Blastocerus extraneus
- Blastocerus arpeitianus
- Genus AntiferAntiferAntifer is an extinct genus of small herbivorous deer of ths family Cervidae endemic to South America during the Late Pliocene to Late Pleistocene, living from 3.6 Ma-11,000 years ago and existing for approximately...
- Antifer ultra
- Antifer crassus
- Genus Morenelaphus
- Morenelaphus lujanensis
- Morenelaphus brachyceros
- Morenelaphus fragilis
- Genus Charitoceros
- Genus Aglamaceros
- Genus Epieuryceros
- Epieuryceros proximus
- Epieuryceros truncus
- Genus Navahoceros
- Navahoceros fricki
- Navahoceros lascrucensis
- Genus OdocoileusOdocoileusOdocoileus is a genus of medium-sized deer containing two species native to the Americas. The name is sometimes spelt odocoeleus; it is from a contraction of the roots odonto- and coelus meaning "hollow-tooth".-Species:...
- Odocoileus brachyodontus
- Odocoileus dolichopsis
- Odocoileus laevicornis
- Odocoileus sellardsiae
- Odocoileus lucasiOdocoileus lucasiMorejohn and Dailey published the analysis of the osteological anatomy and morphology of a practically complete skeleton of a Pleistocene adult male, Odocoileus lucasi along with other collections labeled as O. lucasi...
- Genus Torontoceros
- Tribe Capreolini
Hybrid deer
In On the Origin of Species (1859), Charles DarwinCharles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
wrote "Although I do not know of any thoroughly well-authenticated cases of perfectly fertile hybrid animals, I have some reason to believe that the hybrids from Cervulus vaginalis and Reevesii [...] are perfectly fertile." These two varieties of muntjac are currently considered the same species.
A number of deer hybrids are bred to improve meat yield in farmed deer. American elk (or wapiti) and Red Deer from the Old World can produce fertile offspring in captivity, and were once considered one species. Hybrid offspring, however, must be able to escape and defend themselves against predators, and these hybrid offspring are unable to do so in the wild state. Recent DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
, animal behavior studies, and morphology and antler characteristics have shown there are not one but three species of Red Deer: European red deer, Central Asian red deer
Central Asian Red Deer
The Central Asian Red Deer is a primordial group of Red deer subspecies, which live in central Asia from the Caspian Sea to western China.Recent DNA studies conducted on hundreds samples from Red Deer and Elk subspecies determined that Red deer and Elk represent two distinct species.The central...
, and American elk. The European elk is a different species and is known as moose
Moose
The moose or Eurasian elk is the largest extant species in the deer family. Moose are distinguished by the palmate antlers of the males; other members of the family have antlers with a dendritic configuration...
in North America. The hybrids are about 30% more efficient in producing antlers by comparing velvet to body weight. Wapiti have been introduced into some European red deer herds to improve the Red Deer type, but not always with the intended improvement.
In New Zealand, where deer are introduced species, there are hybrid zones between red deer and North American wapiti populations and also between red deer and sika deer populations. In New Zealand, red deer have been artificially hybridized with Pere David deer in order to create a farmed deer which gives birth in spring. The initial hybrids were created by artificial insemination and back-crossed to red deer. However, such hybrid offspring can only survive in captivity free of predators.
In Canada, the farming of European red deer and red deer hybrids is considered a threat to native wapiti. In Britain, the introduced sika deer is considered a threat to native red deer. Initial sika deer/red deer hybrids occur when young sika stags expand their range into established red deer areas and have no sika hinds to mate with. They mate instead with young red hinds and produce fertile hybrids. These hybrids mate with either sika or red deer (depending which species is prevalent in the area), resulting in mongrelization. Many of the sika deer which escaped from British parks were probably already hybrids for this reason. These hybrids do not properly inherit survival strategies and can only survive in either a captive state or when there are no predators.
In captivity, mule deer have been mated to white-tail deer. Both male mule deer/female white-tailed deer and male white-tailed deer/female mule deer matings have produced hybrids. Less than 50% of the hybrid fawns survived their first few months. Hybrids have been reported in the wild but are disadvantaged because they don't properly inherit survival strategies. Mule deer move with bounding leaps (all 4 hooves hit the ground at once, also called "stotting") to escape predators. Stotting is so specialized that only 100% genetically pure mule deer seem able to do it. In captive hybrids, even a one-eighth white-tail/seven-eighths mule deer hybrid has an erratic escape behaviour
Escape response
Escape response, escape reaction, or escape behaviour is a possible reaction in response to stimuli indicative of danger, in particular, it initiates an escape motion of an animal...
and would be unlikely to survive to breeding age. Hybrids do survive on game ranches where both species are kept and where predators are controlled by man.
Heraldry
Deer are represented in heraldry by the stag or hart, or less often, by the hind, and the brocket (a young stag up to two years), respectively. Stag's heads and antlerAntler
Antlers are the usually large, branching bony appendages on the heads of most deer species.-Etymology:Antler originally meant the lowest tine, the "brow tine"...
s also appear as charges
Charge (heraldry)
In heraldry, a charge is any emblem or device occupying the field of an escutcheon . This may be a geometric design or a symbolic representation of a person, animal, plant, object or other device...
. The old name for deer was simply cerf, and it is chiefly the head which appears on the ancient arms. Examples of deer in heraldry
Heraldry
Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander"...
can be found in the arms of Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
, England, and its county town of Hertford
Hertford
Hertford is the county town of Hertfordshire, England, and is also a civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of the county. Forming a civil parish, the 2001 census put the population of Hertford at about 24,180. Recent estimates are that it is now around 28,000...
; both are examples of canting arms
Canting arms
Canting arms are heraldic bearings that represent the bearer's name in a visual pun or rebus. The term cant came into the English language from Anglo-Norman cant, meaning song or singing, from Latin cantāre, and English cognates include canticle, chant, accent, incantation and recant.Canting arms –...
.
Several Norwegian municipalities have a stag or stag's head in their arms: Gjemnes
Gjemnes
Gjemnes is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway on the Romsdal peninsula. It is part of the Nordmøre region. The administrative centre is Batnfjordsøra, which lies along the Batnfjorden and is a former steamship landing place...
, Hitra
Hitra
Hitra is a municipality and an island in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. The municipality covers the island of Hitra and several smaller islands, and is part of the Fosen region...
, Hjartdal
Hjartdal
Hjartdal is a municipality in Telemark county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Øst-Telemark. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Sauland....
, Rendalen
Rendalen
Rendalen is a municipality in Hedmark county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Østerdalen. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Bergset.-Name:...
and Voss
Voss
is a municipality in Hordaland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Voss. The administrative center of the municipality is the village of Vossevangen....
. A deer appears on the arms of the Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i Postal Authority (see Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
Wikipedia page.
Literature and art
- For the role of deer in mythologyMythologyThe term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...
, see deer in mythologyDeer (mythology)Deer have significant roles in the mythology of various peoples.-Celtic:The Insular Celts held deer as supernatural animals, "fairy cattle" that were herded and milked by a localised and benevolent fairy giantess in each district, who could shift shape to that of a red deer; in the West...
. - The deer plays a large role in Scottish Gaelic poetry (fiadh) of the Highlands of ScotlandScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, where it is seen as a noble creature, and ofter used as a flattering simile or metaphor when used in comparison to a famous warrior, hero or chief. Other animals include the salmonSalmonSalmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true...
and golden eagleGolden EagleThe Golden Eagle is one of the best known birds of prey in the Northern Hemisphere. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. Once widespread across the Holarctic, it has disappeared from many of the more heavily populated areas...
. - The fiction book Fire BringerFire BringerFire Bringer is a young adult fantasy novel by David Clement-Davies published in 1999 in the United Kingdom and 2000 in the United States.- Plot :...
is about a young fawn who is born and goes on a quest to save the deer kind who are called the Herla in the novel. - In ChristmasChristmasChristmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
lore (such as in the narrative poem "A Visit from St. NicholasA Visit from St. Nicholas"A Visit from St. Nicholas", also known as "The Night Before Christmas" and "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" from its first line, is a poem first published anonymously in 1823 and generally attributed to Clement Clarke Moore, although the claim has also been made that it was written by Henry...
"), reindeerReindeerThe reindeer , also known as the caribou in North America, is a deer from the Arctic and Subarctic, including both resident and migratory populations. While overall widespread and numerous, some of its subspecies are rare and one has already gone extinct.Reindeer vary considerably in color and size...
are often depicted pulling the sleigh of Santa ClausSanta ClausSanta Claus is a folklore figure in various cultures who distributes gifts to children, normally on Christmas Eve. Each name is a variation of Saint Nicholas, but refers to Santa Claus...
. - Saint HubertusHubertusSaint Hubertus or Hubert , called the "Apostle of the Ardennes" was the first Bishop of Liège...
saw a stag with a crucifixCrucifixA crucifix is an independent image of Jesus on the cross with a representation of Jesus' body, referred to in English as the corpus , as distinct from a cross with no body....
between its antlers while hunting on Good FridayGood FridayGood Friday , is a religious holiday observed primarily by Christians commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary. The holiday is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum on the Friday preceding Easter Sunday, and may coincide with the Jewish observance of...
and was converted to ChristianityChristianityChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
by the vision. This story was transferred to Hubert from St Eustace, of whom it was originally told. - Deer have been a subject in Chinese paintingChinese paintingChinese painting is one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world. The earliest paintings were not representational but ornamental; they consisted of patterns or designs rather than pictures. Early pottery was painted with spirals, zigzags, dots, or animals...
s numerous times as a tranquility symbol. - The Yaqui deer song (maso bwikam) accompanies the deer dance which is performed by a pascola [from the Spanish 'pascua', Easter] dancer (also known as a deer dancer). Pascolas will perform at religio-social functions many times of the year, but especially during Lent and Easter.
- Deer are depicted in many materials by various pre-Hispanic civilizations in the Andes.
- One famous fictional deer is Bambi. In the DisneyWalt Disney PicturesWalt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
film BambiBambiBambi is a 1942 American animated film directed by David Hand , produced by Walt Disney and based on the book Bambi, A Life in the Woods by Austrian author Felix Salten...
, he is a white-tailed deerWhite-tailed DeerThe white-tailed deer , also known as the Virginia deer or simply as the whitetail, is a medium-sized deer native to the United States , Canada, Mexico, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru...
, while in Felix SaltenFelix SaltenFelix Salten was an Austrian author and critic in Vienna. His most famous work is Bambi .-Life:...
's original book Bambi, A Life in the WoodsBambi, A Life in the WoodsBambi, a Life in the Woods, originally published in Austria as Bambi. Eine Lebensgeschichte aus dem Walde, is a 1923 Austrian novel written by Felix Salten and published by Paul Zsolnay Verlag...
, he is a roe deerRoe DeerThe European Roe Deer , also known as the Western Roe Deer, chevreuil or just Roe Deer, is a Eurasian species of deer. It is relatively small, reddish and grey-brown, and well-adapted to cold environments. Roe Deer are widespread in Western Europe, from the Mediterranean to Scandinavia, and from...
. - The Pulitzer PrizePulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning 1938 novel The YearlingThe YearlingThe Yearling is a 1946 Technicolor family film drama made by MGM. It was directed by Clarence Brown and produced by Sidney Franklin. The screenplay was by Paul Osborn and John Lee Mahin , adapted from the novel of the same name by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings...
, written by Marjorie Kinnan RawlingsMarjorie Kinnan RawlingsMarjorie Kinnan Rawlings was an American author who lived in rural Florida and wrote novels with rural themes and settings. Her best known work, The Yearling, about a boy who adopts an orphaned fawn, won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1939 and was later made into a movie, also known as The...
, was about a boy's relationship with a baby deer, later adapted to a children's film that was nominated for an Academy Award for Best PictureAcademy Award for Best PictureThe Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...
. - In The Lion, the Witch and the WardrobeThe Lion, the Witch and the WardrobeThe Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a fantasy novel for children by C. S. Lewis. Published in 1950 and set circa 1940, it is the first-published book of The Chronicles of Narnia and is the best known book of the series. Although it was written and published first, it is second in the series'...
, the first book in The Chronicles of NarniaThe Chronicles of NarniaThe Chronicles of Narnia is a series of seven fantasy novels for children by C. S. Lewis. It is considered a classic of children's literature and is the author's best-known work, having sold over 100 million copies in 47 languages...
series, the adult Pevensies, now kings and queens of Narnia, chase the White Stag on a hunt, as the Stag is said to grant its captor a wish. The hunt is key in returning the Pevensies to their home in England. - In the Harry PotterHarry PotterHarry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...
series, the Patronus Charm that Harry PotterHarry Potter (character)Harry James Potter is the title character and main protagonist of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. The majority of the books' plot covers seven years in the life of the orphan Potter who, on his eleventh birthday, learns he is a wizard...
conjures to repel Dementors is a silver stag. James Potter, Harry's father, had an Animagus form as a stag. Also, Harry's mother Lily Potter, and subsequently Severus SnapeSeverus SnapeSeverus Snape is a fictional character in the Harry Potter book series written by J.K. Rowling. In the first novel of the series, he is hostile toward Harry and is built up to be the primary antagonist until the final chapters. As the series progresses, Snape's character becomes more layered and...
's, Patronus form was a doe. - In one of the stories of Baron MünchhausenBaron MunchhausenKarl Friedrich Hieronymus, Freiherr von Münchhausen , usually known as Baron Münchhausen in English, was a German nobleman born in Bodenwerder and a famous recounter of tall tales....
, the baron encounters a stag while eating cherries and without ammunition, fires the cherry-pits at the stag with his musket, but it escapes. The next year, the baron encounters a stag with a cherry treeCherry TreeCherry Tree may refer to:* A tree that produces cherries* An ornamental cherry tree that produces cherry blossomsPlaces* Cherry Tree, Pennsylvania, a borough in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, United States* Cherry Tree, Oklahoma...
growing from its head; presumably this is the animal he had shot at the previous year. - In The Animals of Farthing WoodThe Animals of Farthing WoodThe Animals of Farthing Wood is an animated series created by the European Broadcasting Union between 1992 and 1995 and based on the series of books written by Colin Dann. It was produced by Telemagination, based in London, and La Fabrique, based in Montpellier in France, but also aired in other...
, a deer called The Great White StagThe Great White Stag (Farthing Wood)The Great White Stag is a fictional character from the animated children's television series The Animals of Farthing Wood based upon the books of the same name by author Colin Dann...
is the leader of all the animal residents of the nature reserveNature reserveA nature reserve is a protected area of importance for wildlife, flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest, which is reserved and managed for conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research...
White Deer Park.
See also
- Deer forestDeer forestThe deer forest is an institution and phenomenon peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland. It denotes a sporting estate which is kept and managed largely or solely for the purposes of maintaining a resident population of red deer for sporting purposes.Typically, deer forests are in hilly and...
- Deer huntingDeer huntingDeer hunting is survival hunting or sport hunting, harvesting deer, dating back to tens of thousands of years ago. Which occurred though out Europe Asia and North America There are numerous types of deer throughout the world that are hunted.- New Zealand :...
- Deer penisDeer penisIn traditional Chinese medicine, a deer penis is said to have important therapeutic properties. Deer penis and powdered deer penis is commonly sold in Chinese pharmacies. Like turtle's blood and penis, deer penis is also popular in Taiwan and is one of the "delicacies" served in large jars in...
- Animal repellentAnimal repellentAnimal repellents are products designed to keep certain animals away from objects, areas, people, plants, or other animals.-Overview:Repellents generally work by taking advantage of an animal's natural aversion to something, and often the thing chosen is something that the animal has learned to...
- Deer rub
- Reindeer hunting in GreenlandReindeer hunting in GreenlandReindeer hunting in Greenland is of great importance to the Kalaallit and sporting hunters, both residents and tourists. Reindeer are an important source of meat, and harvesting them has always played an important role in the history, culture, and traditions of the Greenland Inuit...
- Australian Deer AssociationAustralian Deer AssociationThe Australian Deer Association is a national hunting and deer conservation organisation. It was set up in 1969 to promote wild deer herds and recreational deer hunting...
External links
- Family Cervidae at the Animal Diversity WebAnimal Diversity WebAnimal Diversity Web is an online database that collects the natural history, classification, species characteristics, conservation biology, and distribution information of thousands of species of animals...
- Chronic Wasting Disease Information
- Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture – Deer