Fallow Deer
A fallow deer (Dama dama) is a ruminant mammal belonging to the family Cervidae.
It has a brown coat with white mottles that are most pronounced in summer. Variants that are completely white or completely black have been known, but are very rare in the wild. The animal is ca. 1,3 m long without tail (tail 19 cm), 1,1m high at the withers, and weights ca. 100 kg.
Its antlers are broad and shovel-like.
It's preferred habitat is mixed woodland and open grassland.
The males stay on their own and only joint the females when in runt at the end of October.
Name
The latin word Damma, roe-like animal was used for roe deer, gazelles and antelopes lies at the root of the modern scientific name, the late Latin Dama, and the German "Damhirsch", French "daim".
History
The fallow deer was a native of most of Europe during the last Interglacial. In the holocene, the distribution was restricted to the Mediterranean area, Turkey and parts of North Africa, while western Asia was the home of a close relative, the Persian fallow deer (Dama mesopotamica), that is bigger and sports bigger antlers.
In the Levant, fallow deer was an important source of meat in the Palaeolithic Kebaran-culture (17.000-10.000 BC), as is shown by animal bones from sites in northern Israel, but the numbers decrease in the following epi-Palaeolithic Natufien (10.000-8.500 BC], perhaps because of increased aridity and the decrease of wooded areas.
The fallow deer was spread by the Romans across central Europe and Britain. The Normans kept them for hunting in the royal forests, as was the use of later rulers. From the 18th century onwards, they were released in to the wild for hunting purposes.
The fallow deer is easily tamed and is kept often kept semi-domesticated in parks today. In some areas of Central Europe, wild fallow deer, not having any natural enemies, has multiplied so much that it is harmful to young trees.
Sources
- Juliet Clutton-Brock, A natural history of domesticated animals (London, British Museum 1978)
- Simon Davis, The archaeology of animals (London, Batsford 1987).
Referenced By
Axis (deer) | Cervidae | Deer | Introduced species | List of introduced species | Persian Fallow Deer
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