Appearance
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 85–95 cm shoulder height, and 70-100 kg in weight; does are 130–150 cm long and 75–85 cm shoulder height, and 40-50 kg in weight. Fawns are born in spring at about 30 cm and weigh around 4.5 kg. The life span is around 12–16 years.Only bucks have antlers, which are broad and shovel-shaped from 3 years. In the first two years the antler is a single spike. 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.
Naming
The Latin word ''dāma'' or ''damma'', used for roe deer, gazelles, and antelopes, lies at the root of the modern scientific name, and the German ''Damhirsch'', French ''daim'', Dutch ''damhert'', and Italian ''daino''. In Croatian and Serbian, the name for the fallow deer is ''jelen lopatar'' , due to the form of its antlers. The Hebrew name of the fallow deer, ''yachmur'' , comes from the Aramaic language, where ''chamra'' means "red" or "brown".
Distribution
The Fallow Deer is a Eurasian deer that was a native to most of Europe during the last Interglacial. In the Holocene, the distribution was restricted to the Middle East and possibly also parts of the Mediterranean region, while further southeast in western Asia was the home of the Persian Fallow Deer, that is bigger and has larger antlers.
Behavior
Agile and fast in case of danger, fallow deer can run up to a maximum speed of 28 mph over short distances. Fallow deer can also make jumps up to 1.75 metres high and up to 5 metres in length.References:
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