The Fallow Deer (Dama dama) is a ruminant mammal belonging to the family Cervidae.
The Fallow Deer (Dama dama) 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 (D. d. mesopotamica),[2] while others treat it as an entirely different species (D. mesopotamica).[1] The male is known as a buck, the female is a doe, and the young a fawn. Adult bucks are 140–160 cm long and 90–100 cm shoulder height, and 60–85 kg in weight; does are 130–150 cm long and 75–85 cm shoulder height, and 30–50 kg in weight. Fawns are born in spring at about 30 cm and weigh around kg. The life span is around 12–16 years. All of the Fallow deer have white spots on their backs, and black tips at the ends of their tails. The species has great variations in the colour of their coats, with four main variants, "common", "menil", "melanistic" and "white" - a genuine colour variety, not albinistic.[3] The common coat variation has a brown coat with white mottles that are most pronounced in summer with a much darker coat in the winter. The white is the lightest colored, almost white; common and menil are darker, and melanistic is very dark, sometimes even black (easily confused with the Sika Deer). Most herds consist of the common coat variation, yet it is not rare to see animals of the menil, melanistic and white coat variations as well. Only bucks have antlers, which are broad and shovel-shaped. They are grazing animals; their preferred habitat is mixed woodland and open grassland. During the rut bucks will spread out and females move between them, at this time of year fallow deer are relatively ungrouped compared to the rest of the year when they try to stay together in groups of up to 150.
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Location: Jammerbugten, Denmark
Photo credit: © Thomas Mellergaard Amby / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
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