Roe Deer

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{{Taxobox | color = pink | name = Roe Deer | image = Roe deer.jpg | image_width = 200px | regnum = Animalia | phylum = Chordata | classis = Mammalia | ordo = Artiodactyla | familia = Cervidae | genus = Capreolus | genus_authority = Gray, 1821 | species = C. capreolus, C. pygargus | binomial = Capreolus capreolus, Capreolus pygargus | binomial_authority = (Linnaeus, 1758) }}

There are two species of Roe Deer. The European Roe Deer (Capreolus capreolus) is a deer species of Britain, Europe, and Asia Minor. However, this species is absent from the countries of Ireland, Portugal and Greece. There is a separate species known as the Siberian Roe Deer (Capreolus pygargus) that is found from the Ural Mountains to as far east as China and Siberia. The two species meet at the Caucasus Mountains, with the European species occupying the southern flank of the mountain ranges and adjacent Asia Minor and the Siberian species occupying the northern flank of the mountain ranges.

The Roe Deer has rather short, erect three-pronged antlers forked at the tips, and a reddish body with a grey face. Its hide is golden red in summer, darkening to brown or even black in winter, with lighter undersides and a white rump patch. Only the males have antlers, which are lost during winter, but which re-grow in time for the mating season. When the male's antlers begin to regrow, they are covered in a thin layer of velvet-like fur which disappears later on after the hair's blood supply is lost. Males may speed up the process by rubbing their antlers on trees, so that their antlers are hard and stiff for the duels during the mating season. Amasingly, roebucks are the only type of deer that can regrow their antlers during winter. Being a small deer, the Roe Deer stands up from 26 to 30 inches, (66-76.2 cm) at the shoulder, can weigh between 37 to 65 lb (15-30 kg) and attains a maximum life span (in the wild) of 3 to 10 years. The Roe Deer will spend most of its life alone, preferring to live solitary except when mating during the breeding season.

Image:Capreolus capreolus (Marek Szczepanek).jpg The Roe Deer is primarily a nocturnal animal, very quick and graceful, living on high ground or mountains, although it may venture to grasslands and sparse forests. It feeds on mainly on grass, leaves, berries and young shoots. When alarmed, it will bark a sound much like a dog and flash out its white rump patch. Rump patches differ between the sexes, with the white rump patches on females being heart shaped and on males, being kidney shaped. Males may also bark when attracting mates during the breeding season, often luring multiple does into their territory.

The polygamous Roe Deer males clash over territory in early summer and mate in early fall. During courtship, when the males chase the females, they often flatten the underbrush leaving behind areas of the forest in the shape of a figure eight called roe rings. Males may also use their 9 inch antlers to shovel around fallen folliage and dirt as a way of attracting a mate. Roebucks enter rutting inappetance during the July and August breeding season. Females will usually give birth the following June, after a seven-month gestation period, typically to two spotted fawns of opposite sexes. The fawns remain hidden in long grass until they are ready to join the rest of the herd when there is one and are suckled by their mother several times in a day for around three months. Young female Roe Deer can begin to reproduce when they are around 16 months old.

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