Red deer

Description

The red deer is one of the larger deer species, although there are sometimes considerable differences in body size between the subspecies. As a rule, the snou-vent lenght of males is 180 to 205 cm, that of females 165 to 180 cm, plus a tail 14 to 16 cm long in each case. Accordingly, the shoulder height is 105 to 130 and 95 to 115 cm respectively. The weight also varies considerably. The red deer has a broad chest, a relatively long, slender neck and a head that narrows towards the front. The tail is 10 to 27 cm long and narrows towards the tip. The red deer has medium-sized eyes (lights), pointed ears (eaves) half the length of the head and high slender feet (legs).

The colouring of the coat varies depending on the season, sex and age. Apart from the hairs on the mouth, all hairs are changed twice a year.

In Central Europe, the summer coat begins to grow in May to June. It has a reddish-brown hazel tone, characteristic of the red deer. In September to October, the majority of red deer change to a grey-yellow to grey-brown winter coat. In older deer, this change of coat can also begin as early as August. Compared to the summer coat, the winter coat is shaggier and has denser woolly hair under the awns. The calves' coat is reddish-brown with dense rows of white spots. These so-called calf spots are covered by regrowing hair during the summer months.

Many red deer have an dorsal stripe from the nape of the neck to the base of the tail. It is characteristic for all red deer that the back of the thigh is clearly different from the rest of the coat colour. The colouring of this so-called mirror is greyish white to yellowish white. The mirror is framed by blackish hairs and thus clearly set off from the rest of the back. 

Red deer prefer habitats with a close network of structure-rich forests, thickets and large open clearings. However, they can also survive well in primeval forest-like closed and scarce food forest areas or almost treeless countryside, such as in Scotland. Since the red deer occurs both in the cold high altitudes of the Alps, in the wet river floodplains of south-eastern Europe and in the hot and dry lowlands of Spain, it can be considered an adaptable species as far as its habitat requirements are concerned. 

In Central Europe, the red deer's free choice of habitat is severely restricted due to dense human settlement. Since the red deer avoids humans, it is mainly found in forest biotopes here and concentrates there on the forest areas where it is least exposed to contact with humans. Known old long-distance crossings of red deer between red deer areas are not given any special protection. From a biological point of view, today's Central European red deer areas are island-like refuges. The exchange between the different red deer areas, which is necessary for the genetic diversity of the red deer population, is not guaranteed either by law or by spatial planning. There are also no migrations between winter and summer ranges, which were originally characteristic for this deer and played a major role for its food acquisition. In individual hunting grounds, this can lead to a high density of deer with corresponding damage to the forest. 

The text is a translation of an excerpt from Wikipedia (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rothirsch). On wikipedia the text is available under a „Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike“ licence. Status: 23 September 2021