Roe Deer with Weird Antlers or Fallow Deer? – June 17th 2008
I was out in the woods with Dave Burns (my mate) when we came across this Roe Deer. It has antlers that I haven’t seen before with ‘growths’ at the bottom of the antlers. It isn’t a great photo as we couldn’t get close enough with there being two of us:
Can anyone comment on this photo if they find it a little unusual or let me know if this is a common thing…
July 3rd, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Does anyone think this could be a Fallow Deer?
July 13th, 2008 at 7:39 am
Doe, a deer, a female deer
Ray, a drop of golden sun
Me, a name I call myself
Far, a long long way to run
Sew, a needle pulling thread
La, a note to follow sew
Tea, I drink with jam and bread
That will bring us back to do…oh oh oh
Doe, a deer, a female deer
Ray, a drop of golden sun
Me, a name I call myself
Far, a long long way to run
Sew, a needle pulling thread
La, a note to follow sew
Tea, I drink with jam and bread
That will bring us back to Do
Doe, a deer, a female deer
Ray, a drop of golden sun
Me, a name I call myself
Far, a long long way to run
Sew, a needle pulling thread
La, a note to follow sew
Tea, I drink with jam and bread
That will bring us back to do
Do re mi fa so la ti do, so do
November 4th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
The “weirdness” is that the antlers are covered with a so called fur, this fur covers the antlers until they are fully grown. When the antlers are fully grown, the roe deers rub them against trees and such to get the fur off.
April 17th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Just browsing Flikr for Roe pics and came across your very fine ones plus this picture here. Definitely a Fallow (Dama dama): ‘common’ colour variant (there are black or melanistic, white and ‘menil’ types too). It is a male (buck) ‘pricket – i.e youngish (probably about 2yrs old) and the two lumps on the still growing ‘velvet’ covered antlers are the start of what will be ‘brow points’. keep up the good work!
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:19 am
Hi I am sure that this is not a Roe deer and is as someone suspected a youngish Fallow Buck. Probably in its second year where they get a couple of short points on each side, in their first year they are known as ” prickets” when they only have spikes. And as Lars said above they grow them under “velvet ” untill the antlers are fully grown.
May 27th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
This is a young fallow buck. Absolutely sure. Considering the time of the year when the picture was made, his body condition and the size of his antlers, I think he is a fairly typical two year old buck whith a good potential for antler growth and physical strength.
His antlers are still covered in the so-called velvet, a thin skin underneath which the antlers are growing (and which supports the structure with the needed calcium and blood).
This skin, as it is covered by a rather dense, straight-haired fur, makes the antlers appear much more massive than they will actually be once the velvet is peeled off.
The “growths” at the bottom – as you called it – is due to the fact that he is already developing his brow tines (sometimes called eye guards or daggers). So this one won’t be a spike, but a four-point buck. In the second year of their lifes (which is the first year a deer of any species develops antlers) fallow males in a good condition – like this one – might already grow bifurcated antlers.
The one in the picture will achieve a little more antler lenght in the following two months, until the velvet will be rubbed off by about the mid of september. By this time, the mature bucks will need their antlers in the territorial fights and later on in the battles for the does. (Mating season / rutting might begin as early as mid octobre.)
This young buck will neither use his antlers nor will he have to fear the dominant males in this season, as he is much too young to participate in the actual rut. He will be accepted in the then mixed herd, while only the oldest bucks will fight each other for the right to breed and regularly drive the males of medium age out of their territory.