Although they are not native to the UK, Fallow deer are the most widespread and according to some sources are also the most common type of deer that lives here. They are the second largest species with males, which are known as bucks growing to 46 to 93 kilos in weight and to 90cm tall at the shoulder. Females, which are known as does, are slightly smaller growing to around 80 cm tall and to weights of 35 to 56 kilos. They come in four main colour types: Tan, Menil, Melanistic and white.
Fallow deer have 2 distinct features that set them apart from all the other deer in this country. Firstly, they have long tails at 14 to 21cm in length. These are often outlined with white surrounded by a darker horse shoe pattern and secondly, the bucks are the only type of deer that grow palmate antlers. This means they are similar in shape to an open hand unlike the branched antlers of a red deer as seen here. These antlers can grow to 70cm in length and are shed and re-grown every year. It takes 4 years on average for a buck to be old enough to grow full antlers and in their younger years they instead grow smaller, less palmate antlers.
Fallow deer can be seen in a variety of habitats but they are most numerous in deciduous or mixed woodlands with large clearings. They can form large herds, especially where they are stocked into deer parks but feral populations are mostly seen in smaller groups, which usually consist of all males or all females. 60%of their diet is made up of grass which they supplement with leaves, herbs, and fruits and nuts throughout the autumn.
The Fallow deer rutting season runs from mid to late September until the beginning of November and it is during this time that the adult males will compete with one another for the right to mate. They begin by announcing their presence and intent with a deep repetitive belching noise. This is often followed up with side by side walking and posturing but if this isn’t enough, then they have no other choice but to engage in head to head, antler to antler combat. These fights can be ferocious and can rarely result in serious injury or even death. Once the winner has been determined, he will mate with the present and receptive does. Each doe is pregnant for around 230 days meaning she will give birth in June or July. The young are known as fawns and each doe will only give birth to one per year. For the first three to 4 months, the fawns will stay in a hidden spot, usually among tall grass and vegetation, only emerging every few hours when their mothers come to feed them. After this time they join their mothers herd and begin to gradually switch from a diet of just milk to the same vegetation based diet as their mothers and they are fully weaned at 7 to 9 months old. At this point the young males will usually leave their mothers and join male only groups whilst young does might stay with their mother herd for life.
As I mentioned earlier, fallow deer are not native to the UK and were first introduced to Britain around the in the roman period. At the fall of the roman empire, genetic studies have shown that these deer went extinct here and it wasn’t until the 11th century that they were reintroduced from the eastern Mediterranean. These would have been kept in deer parks and it wasn’t until the 15th century when these fell out of fashion that the deer escaped and began breeding in the wild.
Fallow deer bucks have an average lifespan of 8 to 10 years and does usually live a bit longer at 12 to 16 years. The oldest fallow deer on record died in 2006 at 21 years of age.
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@HansKasza allowed me to use their fallow deer fawn footage, the original can be found here: • 💚 Cute Fallow Deer Ca...
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• Fallow Deer (Dama dama)
• Fallow Deer Herd, Part 1
• Fallow Deer Herd, Part 2
• 2 Fallow Deer Bucks Fi...
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• Fallow Deer, Dama Dama...
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• FaunaView: Fallow Deer...
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• deer st leonards fores...
• Deer in Phoenix Park, ...
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• E5D 4139 The Rut
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“Red Deer" by chapmankj75 is licensed with CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit creativecommons.org/licenses/...
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